BOOK THREE: James Potter and the Alchemist's Curse
by Luke Grant
Summary: The shadow continues to gather in the Wizarding world as the Magical History Movement continues in their quest to reclaim the Ministry of Magic in the name of Lord Voldemort!
1. Chapter 1: Treasures of Pharoahs

Chapter One: Treasures of Pharaohs

The endless shifting sands of Egypt flowed across like a river that meandered through a forest, appearing as nothing more than an endless flowing embrace. Yet beneath this innocuous appearance, it was well known to those with knowledge of such matters that the shifting sands of the Northeastern Sahara hid innumerable ancient and dark secrets that would have best been left undiscovered for all of eternity.

But saying that some things are best left undiscovered is like asking for them to be discovered, asking for someone to stumble upon them, and put them to them to their twisted use. Thus was the case today.

But in Egypt, such secrets could remain undisturbed and unfound for centuries … millennia even, and it was very probable that some of them would never be found. But the vast majority of them would at some point be found as the shifting sands exposed their places of hiding, and those who plumbed the ancient crags of Egyptian ruins stumbled upon them.

For today, after centuries of lying undiscovered and unnoticed, an ancient treasure with magical powers the likes of which had not been seen on this earth since the days of the Founding of Hogwarts was going to be unearthed, and its immeasurable powers were going to be unleashed on an unprepared and unsuspecting world.

But the question presents itself, who would possibly dare to meddle in such ancient and dangerous magics? The answer lay, as such matters often did, with those who had everything to gain and nothing to lose, in those who had been driven to the point of desperation by the efforts of those who opposed them. To those who, in that desperation were willing to turn to a force that could just as easily destroy them as it could save them.

The Wizards who sought this treasure were known as the Magical History Movement, who had twice since they had publically announced their existence two years before, had launched a plot that surrounded the ancient magics that were found in the immediate area of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

However, both times they had been thwarted, thwarted by the son of their sworn foe Harry Potter! Thwarted by the brat of the man who had killed the would be savior of Wizard kind, and then subjected the Wizarding World to live under his boot by filling the Senior Positions of the Ministry with his puppets!

But this time, they would not be stopped by the brats of Potter, as their new plan would not take them anywhere near Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the children would be attending school in the fall. So as long as they could keep their actions secret from the Ministry of Magic, something that was about as difficult as hiding a rock in your pocket, they had nothing to fear.

Of course, they would first have to find the lost treasure that was the center point of their plan, but there was little doubt that they would find it in short time. They had been sent to this spot by The Master himself, and they knew that The Master always knew that of which he spoke. After all, in recent years he had found the Resurrection Stone, the Pendant of Cleopatra, and the last Heir of Slytherin, none of which were supposed to even _exist_!

This time, however, they were searching for something that, while it had been lost for over four millennia, most certainly existed. Even better, he knew precisely where it could be found, and so had sent this force to recover it so that it could be put to use once again by the Magical History Movement.

* * *

><p>The timing had been perfect, somehow The Master had known that the sands of Egypt had shifted near the Nile Delta, and that their mark would be found there. How he knew these things no one dared ask, all they knew was that if they did not find it before it was once again hidden beneath the sands then they may as well throw themselves off the top of the nearest edifice.<p>

They had been given very explicit instructions; they were to blast apart the uncovered ruins until they found what they had been sent after. Once they had found it, they were to destroy the ruins and apparate back to Cairo so that they could report back to their Master at their established Rendezvous Point.

It was simple, brilliant, and absolutely foolproof! There would be no witnesses or evidence for the Ministry to become suspicious, not even the slightest sign that anything had ever occurred there. They would be in and out in less than an hour, long before the site had time to be discovered by archeologists, Wizard and Muggle alike … if indeed it ever was.

That was the most important part, the Egyptian Ministry of Magic could not uncover anything to lead them to determine what the Magical History Movement was after! If any of the world's magical leaders uncovered their plan before they were ready, the entire operation could be compromised! In order for The Mater's plan to succeed, no one could know what the Magical History Movement had found, or even that they had been looking for something!

That was the plan anyway, but oftentimes such plans did not exactly go precisely the way that they were intended to, and right now was starting to look like one of those times. Though they had been able to find the ruins without much trouble, it was proving extremely difficult to find the item for which they had been sent in the first place.

They had blasted apart half the place, but there was not the slightest sign of what they were looking for. The men, who had been expecting an easy pick up job, were now beginning to worry that they were going to have to go digging for the subject of their search. And for those who had never tried, digging in the sand is about as easy as passing off a hippogriff as a crup.

But The Master would not accept failure, so if it came to that they would be left with no choice but to go digging for the item of their search, it was either that or an extremely unpleasant conversation with The Master once they returned. And by an 'unpleasant conversation' they knew that the slow and painful death of each and every one of them, before they were replaced with a second team, was clearly implied.

So as such, despite the fact that their search had led to not even the slightest trace of their goal, they were left with no choice but to continue searching. In a way it was almost a pity that they were being forced to destroy all of this history, but it could not be helped. Their mission must go forward, and if a few old ruins had to be blown up along the way then that was just collateral damage.

And there was to be lots of collateral damage, the ruins were being blasted to bits by the Dark Wizards, erasing the mark and legacy of a civilization that had thrived and flourished over four thousand years before. The civilization was one of magical origin, and ruled by those in whose blood hummed the fire and power of magic.

* * *

><p>As the men continued with their search, leveling the cragged stone as they passed by, each of them began planning how they would blame the others for the failure. So long as they could pass the buck on to someone else the penalty would be lighter for them.<p>

"You reckon it's even out here?" asked one of the men, gruff and bearded with a thick Scottish accent, who looked as though his face had been clawed at by some manner of dark creature. He had received this scar in a duel with one of the Magical History Movement's greatest enemies. An enemy almost as hated as Harry Potter himself!

"It must be, or He wouldn't have sent us here would he?" answered the figure beside him, the only woman on this expeditionary force. Unlike her companion, she was young, and looked as though she had never seen the rigors of combat, though in fact she had actually braved more fights than her companion.

Though she had the outward appearance of a beauty queen, she had all of the skill and ruthlessness of a battle hardened killer, and she had killed scores of her foes. She was, despite of her youth, one of the longest serving members of the Magical History Movement, and had been with the organization almost since its inception seventeen years earlier.

The bearded man shrugged with a grunt, and the two continued looking, there was not much else to say. True, there was no questioning the resources and ingenuity of The Master, but even he could make mistakes … couldn't he? Regardless as to the answer, no one was going to be the poor sorry sap to have to tell The Master that his plans were flawed: doing so would result in death … if you were lucky!

Consequentially, they were left with little recourse other than to follow through with the plan as it had been outlined to them by The Master, and continue searching until they had found that which they had been sent after.

The worst part of it was that they did not even know exactly what it was that they were searching for. Oh, they knew what it was and what it looked like to be certain; but as to what use it had, and why it was so important to The Master they had not the slightest of insights to. Of course, they had not asked, but even if they had they would not have received an answer: unless the application of the Cruciatus Curse counted as an answer, but then again there were some answers that you did not want to hear. After all, if you did not know what devastation the artifact you were searching for was going to cause, the thought of it could not keep you up at night.

Yes, in a lot of ways it was better not to know exactly what it was you were doing.

* * *

><p>They had been told that the subject of their search would be found within a matter of hours, no more than two or three hours if they were terribly unlucky. However, they had now been out in the sweltering Egyptian sun for almost five hours, and they were still no closer to locating their objective.<p>

Part of the problem, had lay in a lack of appreciation for the size of the area that they were to be searching. They had set out under the assumption that they would be searching through an area of ruins around the size of a dwelling … perhaps a temple if they were unlucky. However, what they had found instead was a massive complex of ruins the size of a rather large city. The site they were looking for must have once been a part of some kind of Egyptian Mecca of power and wealth.

The city had been built all those millennia ago as a place for the gathering and collaborating of the ancient Priests of Magic in Old Egypt. These Priests had wielded enormous power, the likes of which the world had not seen in some time. But aside from their magical powers, these Priests also had vast political power at their fingertips, as their powers enabled them to control the Pharaohs that they professed to serve.

It was these Priests therefore, and not the Pharaohs, who had truly controlled Egypt, and as such their City had been constructed with all of the resources and luxuries available at the time. The city was, in all likelihood, the largest of its time, and probably could have rivaled the size of modern day Cairo!

Consequentially, they had been forced to go through the city building by building, searching carefully through each one of them in search for their target. However, more than half of the city had been leveled by now, and there had not been even the slightest sign of their target.

"I bloody well told you that there's nothing out here!" snapped the gruffly bearded man some time later as he sat down with a huff on the side of one of the still standing buildings. His face was dripping with sweat, glistening beads of which still clung to the jet black hair that hung from his chin.

"You don't know that." Said the woman calmly, though like her companion, her face glistened from exertion and exhaustion. "If The Master said that it was here, then it is here, and it would be very unwise of you to let anyone hear differently."

The dozen other members of the group continued searching, none of them daring to do something as bold as request a break from their toils. These two were permitted such luxuries because they had been placed in command of this venture, due to their previous feats on behalf of the Movement. Those who toiled under them, though, were not afforded such benefits.

So while the pair settled into the shade created by one of the buildings that still stood the other members of the MHM, whom they had brought with them, continued at their work; though they were on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion after hours of tedious labor they pressed on. In fact, one man had literally collapsed from exhaustion a while back, but the young woman with the hardened eyes had made sure that he would never wake again.

"If there were anything to find," the man insisted in a hoarse voice as he emptied a canteen over his glistening face, "We would have found it long before now. The Egyptians always hid their treasures in either the Palace, or the Temple, and we've searched both of those already! I'm telling you, there's nothing here!"

The man was on the verge of hysterics now, shouting as loudly as he could in his frustrated rage. He knew that failure to comply with the wished of The Master, whether through any fault of his own or not, would result in death. If he returned back to The Master empty handed, the reasons behind his failure would not matter … he would die all the same.

His companion by contrast, spoke in measured and even tones as she looked at him coldly, "That, is the kind of talk that will lead you to failure. Do you think that we would have uncovered the Pendant of Cleopatra if we had given up after looking in those places?" In her time in the organization she had been sent on far too many expeditions similar to this one to not know that looking in the 'usual places' was not going to lead to much success.

The year before, she had been in charge of the Magical History Movement's search for the Pendant of Cleopatra, a magical artifact which she had eventually found buried in the foundations of the Tower of London. The Tower of London! Imagine the surprise of the Dark Witches and Wizards of the Magical History Movement when they had learned that the old Egyptian artifact had been found thousands of miles away from its home … in England of all places!

Of course, once The Master had traced the Pendant through the years to Salazar Slytherin, it had been no more than a simple deduction that the Pendant must have followed Slytherin back to his home. Of course, they had not immediately suspected London, initially viewing Hogwarts as a more likely hiding place, but they had found the Pendant readily enough.

"Yea, and look where all of that effort got us?" the man snapped back impatiently. "All of our work and toil to find the thing, and those buffoons at the Ministry of Magic, rather than preserve it for future generations to see like they should have, bowed to Harry Potter's tyranny and had it destroyed! Two Thousand Years of history gone!"

However, the woman ignored him and merely murmured pensively, "Ah yes, I had heard about that; I wonder how exactly they did it. It would not be an easy artifact to destroy I'd imagine." Like most of the magical instruments created by the ancient Magical Priests of Egypt, the Pendant of Cleopatra was a highly magical artifact that would be immensely difficult to destroy. It was resistant to most kinds of magic, and even hacking at it with a blade would not be enough to destroy the Pendant.

"Fiendfyre!" The bearded man spat, "A bit of a departure from standards for them isn't it? I hear that Minister Shacklebolt himself signed off on the order; which of course means that it was _Potter_ behind the decision."

This was of little surprise to the woman, there was little going on at the Ministry these days that did not happen under the direct instruction of the famous 'Boy Who Lived', the traitor who had undermined the stability that the Dark Lord had struggled to bring to the Wizarding World.

Still, Fiendfyre was a surprising change of pace for the Ministry of Magic, which had as of late expressed extreme disapproval of the use of the cursed fire. In fact, word in the back alleys of London had it that the International Confederation of Wizards, at the behest of Harry Potter as usual, was considering adding Fiendfyre to the list of 'Unforgivable Curses' marking the first attempt to add a Curse to the list since it had been made in 1717.

If the rumors were true, then this was just the latest in a series of actions taken by the 'Boy Who Lived' as they called him, to ensure that no one was ever able to question his power. The alarming thing, though, was that very few people seemed to even _want_ to challenge his power! Most people still seemed to believe the lies that Harry Potter was a hero who had saved the Wizarding World from the 'evil Dark Lord' rather than the other way around.

Needless to say, it was extremely frustrating to the Magical History Movement, for how in Merlin's name were you to fight a dictator when the oppressed seemed all too content to live beneath his boot? In order to truly liberate the Wizarding World from the oppressive rule of Harry Potter, they would first need to make them see that Potter was not the glowing hero that they all thought that he was.

The man gazed off into the distance, staring towards the endless stretch of sand that made up the surrounding desert of the Sahara without actually seeing it. Not that there would have been much to see had he actually been looking. No matter which direction one would choose to look from where the gruff bearded man was sitting, they would see nothing but the same identical horizon, unbroken by anything but the occasional sand dune, and the light flow of trickling sand as it blew across the desert floor.

He thought of the grand plans that the Magical History Movement had in store for the world, a world where Wizards were supreme and were served by Muggles, much like the world that had existed when these ruins were still a thriving city. A world where Wizardkind was free to live and flourish without being forced to live in secrecy by the extremely outdated International Statute of Secrecy.

Yes, the International Statute of Secrecy, the ace in the hole of the corrupted and self-serving Ministry of Magic. To hear them talk about it, one would think that the International Statute of Secrecy had been established for the safety and protection of Wizardkind, but these were nothing but lies!

The safety and protection of Wizardkind, is that really what they would have people believe? What protection did the world of Wizards need from Muggles, who could no more harm them than they could grow an extra set of limbs? It would be easy, simple even, to come out of hiding and assert their rightful place at the pinnacle of the world. Secrecy was not necessary for safety, for they could easily defeat and subjugate the Muggles of the world.

So why then were they really being forced to remain hidden by the Ministry and the International Confederation of Wizards? It was simple really, so simple in fact that the old man was surprised that no one had ever realized it before! The real reason that the Wizards of the world were forced to keep themselves hidden from Muggles was …

"Sir! Sir! Over here, we've found something!" Came the excited cries from between two buildings to the left of the pair, interrupting the old man's musings. The two glanced upwards in surprise, as though scarcely able to believe what they had just heard. After all of their efforts, was the end finally in sight? As the gruff old man allowed himself a premature sigh of relief, a smug grin crossed the face of the young woman besides him.

"See," she jested, sounding even more confident and self-assured than she had just moments before "What did I tell you? I told you that we'd find it soon enough." Her face was alight with an unhindered joy and pride, as though she was accomplishing some task of the upmost honor and sophistication.

The man could not help but grin at the enthusiasm of his young partner, though she had seen off many battles and duels, and though she had killed without hesitation in the past, and would surely continue to do so, she still did not fully understand the horrors and sorrows of the world in which she lived. He had shared her enthusiasm when he was younger, but the tragedies that he had been forced to bear had eventually tempered his early enthusiasm. Some day, when she had seen more of the world, her enthusiasm would fade as well.

The two rose in unison and strode over to where the shouts had come from. Amidst the rubble surrounding what had once been a building of some sort were gathered the twelve members of the Voldemort Revisionist Movement, all of whom stared into the ditch that had been carved in the ground with equal amounts of awe and fear.

Sticking up out of the sand, just barely visible to the eyes of the onward gazing Wizards was a large parchment scroll … pockmarked from the wear and tear of ages. Though the scroll looked like it had been battered and torn up during the time that it had remained in its stone prison, it was amazing that they had found it in as whole a state as it was.

After all, the scroll had been hidden away, unseen by human eyes, for over four thousand years! And over the course of four thousand years there were a million and one things that could happen to destroy a piece of old parchment, aside from the ravages that the mere passage of time would exert of its own.

As it would happen, only magic and luck had kept the scroll intact for all of those years, but even then it was still a long shot that it had survived long enough to be found forty centuries later. The odds had to have been one in a million, one in a billion even, but there it was before them, having defied the odds long enough to be found, and put back to the evil use for which it had been designed.

Of course, there was nothing evil about the scroll itself. The scroll was just that, a scroll, it had no magical properties of its own: other than the enchantments that had been placed on it that allowed it to (to some extent) survive the ravaging hands of time long enough to have been found by the Magical History Movement … or whoever it was that would have come along to collect it … four millennia later.

No, the evil lay not in the scroll itself, but in that which was written on the scroll. For, though it looked like nothing more than an ancient scrap of parchment, this scroll contained information with which one could accomplish unheard of feats of magic, and wreck untold destruction and devastation on the world … in the wrong hands that is.

Then again, in the right hands, the scroll contained the knowledge of how to do equally incredible things that would benefit Wizardkind, and indeed the world itself. Regardless of the morality of he who uncovered the scroll, it would still hold knowledge that they could use to change the shape of the world in which they lived. But how would the Magical History Movement use the scroll's knowledge?

They could, of course use it for purposes towards the benefit of Wizardkind; but at the same time they could use it to unleash a power on the world the likes of which had not been seen in all of recorded history!

The man stooped to one knee and plucked the scroll from the ground. As the last grains of sand trickled down from the scroll, the man's twisted face stared downwards without any outward displays of emotion. Not yet, not now, they were far too close to allow themselves to slip up now! They had to be certain, absolutely unquestionably certain, before they did anything else! If they went back to The Master with the wrong scroll, their fate would be even worse than if they had returned with nothing at all.

There was silence, as all those gathered waited with bated breath to hear whether they had uncovered the scroll for which they had been searching for all those hours, or if they had simply stumbled upon another of the millions of old documents that lay buried in the sands in the Land of the Nile.

The man unrolled the scroll with the utmost of care and delicacy, as though he was afraid that the parchment might crumble into dust in his hands if he were not extremely cautious. As he unfurled the parchment to its fullest extent, his eyes scanned over the roll intently, a bead of sweat that had nothing to do with the heat rolling down his forehead.

"Well?" demanded the woman, shocking everyone as her voice shattered the silence that had hunkered down over the area like a giant beast waiting to pounce upon its prey. No one else would have dared speak until the man had announced his findings, but she was no ordinary Witch … she was far too important to the Magical History Movement to be subject to the same restrictions and punishments as the average member.

"Well?" she repeated impatiently, when her only answer were shocked stares, and a few jumps as some of the more easily frightened members of the MHM leapt in shock at the shattering of the silence, "Is that it or not? We don't have all day; we should have left hours ago!"

She was right, of course, but the man was still angered by her nerve, despite her stature within the Magical History Movement, he was still her superior, and she needed to learn to treat him with the respect that he deserved. He would need to speak with The Master about putting the girl in her rightful place; she was growing far too independent and forceful.

His eyes dancing in anger, the man glowered "Aye," his voice sounding neither relieved nor jubilant, but cross and bitter … this was a man who was unaccustomed to having his leadership questioned.

"Aye," he repeated, "This is it! We've found what we're looking for men!" he said, allowing the scroll to crunch back into its tight roll and holding it skyward in his hand for all to see. This was a historic moment in the history of Wizardkind, for today would mark the beginning of a new dawn for the Magical History Movement, and for the world! From this day forward, they would have the power and respect that they needed in order to accomplish their goals.

Well, perhaps not the respect that they needed … not yet anyway, but this scroll would allow them to earn that respect. For with the scroll they would have power, and with power they would instill fear in the hearts of their enemies, and with the fear of traitors would come the love and respect of the populace!

A series of cries sounded from the circle as the Dark Wizards rejoiced in their success, leaping and hooting and hollering at their accomplishment, the day was theirs and so too was the future! Some of the more boisterous men and women shot sparks from their wands, blasting apart what little remained of the ancient city.

The woman, for her part, did not speak again, but merely smiled in satisfaction that their job in the desert was done. Her smile was a cold and twisted one, especially for one so beautiful, and as she smiled she looked as though she was in pain.

Then again, perhaps her smile looked so tortured and painful because it was caused by the thought of other people being in pain themselves … namely the enemies of the Magical History Movement. For the woman was a fanatic, who thought of nothing else day and night but the aims of the Movement, and how they were to be accomplished.

* * *

><p>The Dark Wizards were blasting apart what remained of the ruins, doing so with a single minded determination and quickness that they had not been able to achieve before. Because they no longer had to worry about destroying the scroll that they had been looking for, they were now able to blast the buildings to dust with much greater nonchalance.<p>

As such, it took only a matter of minutes before the rest of the ruins had been blasted to bits, leaving nothing behind but a few odd pieces of rock and rubble that pockmarked the sandy floor on which they stood. If anyone were to stumble upon this site, they would think it a dumping place for rock excavated from old tombs, many of which littered the surrounding area. All traces of the old lost city that had been exposed by the shifting winds were gone!

None of them pitied the loss though, as the Wizard City had already revealed its lone secret of value, what more use could it possibly provide for anyone? History? There were hundreds, if not thousands of sites just like this scattered across Egypt, no one would miss this one. In fact, they could not have missed it even if there were not thousands of others to occupy their attention, as no record of this cities existence survived … save for the one in the possession of The Master.

The Dark Wizards appraised the remains of what had once been a surviving monument to human craftsmanship and ingenuity, but was now just a collection of rocks and debris. There was nothing more to see, and no time to waste crying like little girls over that which had been lost. No one else was going to miss the city, so why should they concern themselves with it? As far as anyone was concerned, the city had never even existed to be destroyed in the first place.

With a series of loud cracks, the Dark Wizards vanished one by one, leaving nothing but endless dunes of sand behind as the sands of Egypt began to hide the remains of their conquest.

**And so it begins! Hopefully you're all still with me after two long books as we set course for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for a third time! Thanks to everyone who has been following me, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! It means so much to me when people leave their thoughts and comments, good or bad. Thanks again for all of the support guys! I hope you notice a visible improvement in my quality from here on out, oh what a difference a year makes. :)**


	2. Chapter 2: Knights Walk These Halls

Chapter Two: Knights Walk These Halls

It seemed that the summer months had barely began before June and July had given way to August, and the start of the new school year was looking as a rapidly approaching specter on the horizon. And with the approach of the school year, came the desperate attempts of every school age child in Britain to cram as much enjoyment into their last few weeks of summer as they possibly could.

Today in Manchester, a group of students like the millions of others were racing to finish all of their planned activities before September rolled around, though these students were not like most of the others across Great Britain. For these students were Wizards in training, yet this was not even the most unusual thing about them. Even by the standards of Wizards, these four boys were remarkably different, and even at the age of thirteen they were famous, or infamous as the case may be, to students and teachers alike at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Still, different as they may be from the vast majority of their peers, both magical and Muggle alike, this quartet of teens shared one thing at least in common with the masses, they were not looking forward to the resumption of their classes. That was why they were all in Manchester today, a city from which only one of the four hailed.

The others had travelled there the night before for the end of summer vacation, one of them travelling over three thousand miles to do so, but now they were once again together under the same roof, the first time that all four of them had been united in more than two months! They had met in twos before, but the group as a whole had been separate since that last day in June.

It was probably worst for Jeremey, who stuck as he was across the ocean in Montreal, had not seen any of the others since school had ended. Or perhaps for Zach, who had left Hogwarts with the uncertainty and confusion still hanging over him like a shroud. But in James' opinion, there was no doubt that he had endured the worst summer of the lot.

Not because he had been cut off, as he had seen Andrew and Zach a few times each over the summer, not to mention the Malloy twins who lived just a few blocks away from him in London. And no, not because of any lingering self doubts as James had likely never encountered anything in his entire life to cause him to doubt himself in any capacity. No, the 'misery' of James' summer had come from the indignation of being forced to spend so much of his time explaining to an even more annoying than usual Lily about everything that had happened during the last year.

It had gotten so bad that even Albus, who had always treated Lily like the precious little princess that she seemed to think that she was, was ready to blow a gasket, and so the Potter boys were very relieved when the invitation came to spend the last few weeks of summer with Andrew's family. Of course, getting away with it had been another matter entirely.

Albus, quite wisely, had been the one to bring the subject up. Knowing as they did that their parents would be much more willing to go along with the idea if it was coming from the more responsible son. Still, it had been a tough sell.

"I don't know boys," their mother said, looking at their looks of eagerness with some resignation, as though she knew already that they were going to tire her out eventually.

"But mum, we haven't seen them all summer!" James lied, though admittedly it was only a partial lie. His best friend Jeremey Hall had already arrived, having decided to make the trip from Canada early to avoid having to do everything at the last minute, and it _had_ been all summer since James had last seen him.

"Besides, we'll see you again the day before Term starts." Albus added, knowing that James' appeal was not going to hold as much water to a mother who just wanted to see her boys before they left for school again.

And so at long last, their mother conceded, but not before Lily could show up to try and spoil the moment.

"Can I come?" she asked excitedly, jumping up and down in anticipation before both of her brothers silenced her with a simultaneous "No!" resulting in the small girl running back up to her room with a loud declaration of how no one in this family cared about her, though for the life of him James could not be bothered to feel bad. He had more than seen his fill of his little sister this summer, and would like nothing more than to get her incessant questions away from him.

* * *

><p>And so it was with some sense of relief that the Potter brothers bid their parents goodbye on the doorstep of the Knight residence, and battled each others' arms aside as they both struggled to be the one to knock on the door. A battle which was interrupted when the door flung open, and James felt his legs get taken out from underneath him as he was tackled to the ground by a familiar-looking figure.<p>

James let out a grunt of annoyance as he was driven into the grass, not needing to see the face to know who it was that had tackled him. "Get off Jer," James said, grinning despite his annoyance with his friend, "Cause if you don't I swear to god I'm going to kill you!"

Jeremey Hall, for his part, just laughed and replied "Great to see you too James," Standing up, Jeremey shook his head as though he were disappointed with a small child's behavior and said "Jeez mate, I travel three thousand miles to see you guys and this is the thanks I get?"

"You'd better count yourself as lucky that I'm so relieved to get out of the house, otherwise I'd show you just how _grateful_ I actually am." James threatened, but the two friends hugged all the same. Sure that was probably a bit unmanly, but it wasn't like anyone could see them, well except for Albus, but he didn't count.

"Oi, did you come here to be a sissy, or what?" came another voice from inside the house, this one belonging to James' other friend Andrew Knight. It would seem that Andrew's growth spurt the last summer had not been good enough, as he had grown even more this year. Sure he had probably been growing all year round, but James had not noticed quite as much when he was seeing him every day.

"I'll show you how much of a sissy I am when I kick your butt from here to China!" James said, walking inside to greet his friend, Albus and Jeremey followed closely behind, already having started poking fun at each other, their favorite topic of conversation. "Where's Zach?" James asked as the four stood together in the doorway.

"Right behind you smartz." Came the condescending answer from the doorway as a pale looking Zachary Tolentino, laden down with more bags than James believed one human being could possibly be capable of carrying.

Andrew seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he asked "You staying for the week or moving in mate?" trying to suppress his laughter as Zach nearly toppled over under the weight of all the things he was carrying.

"Just shut up and give me a hand." Zach said as he approached the group, sticking out one leg to try and kick Andrew in the shin. Unfortunately, this did not work out too well for the boy as he lost his balance and fell to the ground with a thud, causing the four boys standing before him to break out into fits of laughter.

* * *

><p>It had taken them nearly an hour to finally get everyone's stuff up to where everyone was going to be sleeping. Andrew, Zach, and Jeremey were all going to squeeze into his room, while James and Albus would be left to fight over the guest room … which conveniently only had a single bed. The boys had at last agreed to a spitting contest to decide who would get the bed, and after Andrew had nearly had an aneurysm they'd begrudgingly agreed to take their contest outside.<p>

Jeez, when had Andrew turned into such a killjoy?

To James' amazement, not to mention shame, Albus managed to outspit him by a good two yards, meaning that in addition to the shame of losing to his little brother he was going to be sleeping in the floor that week.

"He just got lucky." James complained to an unconvinced looking Zach, who was looking like he very much wanted to join the other three in laughing at James. "The wind just picked up right before I went!" he complained, desperate for an excuse to cover up for his defeat. Unfortunately, no one was all that convinced by James' scrambling, and only Zach even bothered to attempt to hide it.

"Just face it James," Jeremey said with a smirk, "You just got upstaged by Albus, _Albus_!" shaking his head, as though sincerely disappointed he said "I never thought I'd live to see you sink so low."

"Hey!" Albus protested, punching Jeremey in the arm for good measure.

"Not his fault Al," Andrew interjected a moment later, "It's just a fact of life that the oldest brother is supposed to be better at everything.

At that moment, as though his words had brought a terrible curse upon him, a small voice came from just behind him, making Andrew leap two feet into the air in shock. "You're not better at _everything_ Andy."

The voice belonged to no other than Julian Knight, Andrew's brother who – though he was now nine years old – hardly looked a day older than he had when James had seen him last two years before. He was could not have been more than 4'5", though James was no giant himself, and James would not have been surprised to find that each and every blonde hair on his head was in exactly the same position that it had been two years before.

Glancing around his brother, Julian waved eagerly at the rest of them and shouted "Hi guys!" with a huge grin on his face. Apparently Andrew had told his little brother a thing or two about his friends, because Julian seemed to have followed them with the intention of spending the rest of the day following them around.

Needless to say, Andrew did not like this idea, and he made no mistake of making sure that Julian knew it. "Look, Julian …" Andrew began, a look of the upmost frustration on his face as he raised his hand to his forehead, "Don't you have some _friends_ that you can go annoy?"

Julian, who seemed oblivious to the fact that no one wanted him around, glanced around shiftily before saying rather jovially "Nope." Though whether this meant that he didn't have any friends or that he didn't feel like 'annoying' them at the moment, James did not know.

Andrew however did not seem to have the slightest interest in deciphering what it was his younger brother was trying to say, as he sighed in annoyance before muttering "Just go play with Julie or something."

"But Andy," Julian said in the same annoyingly childish voice that James always used when he wanted something, "I wanna play with you guys!" he complained, his lower lip trembling as though he were about to cry.

"Oh come on guys, just let him come with us." Albus said, clearly remembering what it had been like for him to be left out as the younger brother, albeit one who was mercifully less whiny and annoying than this one.

Andrew crossed his arms and said quite dismissively "No! Julian, just go away!" practically screaming at the boy who looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"Fine! I didn't want to play with you anyway!" Julian shouted back, turning around and running back to the house, leaving the rest of them standing around feeling extremely awkward in the encroaching silence.

"Wow, you're cool Andrew." Zach deadpanned, still not looking up as though he didn't want to face his friend as he criticized his actions. "I mean, you didn't have to be so mean to him." he mumbled in explanation. Though his sarcasm seemed to be entirely intact, Zach had seemed to be in a rather somber mood all day.

"Are you serious?" Andrew protested incredulously, looking as though Zach had just told him that he believed You Know Who was seriously misunderstood, and the Magical History Movement had a few fair points. And, for his part, James could not help but agree.

"I knew it!" James declared dramatically, falling to his knees in fake lamentation before saying "They _did_ mess with his mind!" grabbing Zach's shirt and wringing it for good measure.

"Shove it James," Zach said, shoving him away as James began cracking up at his own joke, "I was just saying that he could have been a bit nicer about it. I mean, what's the big deal if he hangs around with us?"

"You don't want Julian around." Andrew pointed out, "He's my little brother."

"So?" Zach asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"Well, all little brothers are annoying little turds." James said, shrugging as though this were something quite obvious that everyone should already know.

"I'm a younger brother." Zach commented dryly, still looking quite unconvinced despite their very good arguments.

"Yea, but she's not your actual sister." Jeremey pointed out, before hastily adding at the look of outrage that crossed Zach's face, "I know that you guys are no different than real siblings, but you're not blood so it doesn't count."

"Yea…" Zach said quietly, still sounding rather unconvinced before pointing at Albus and asking "What about …?"

But Albus interrupted him before he could finish "Don't Zach, they'd just _love_ the opportunity to tell you how I just prove their point."

Zach chuckled and turned to James who just shrugged and said "It's true, he does."

"Do not!" Albus retorted, an automatic reply that came without conscious thought.

"Do too!" came the equally automatic response before James even had time to think about whether it was even worth the effort at this point.

"Glad to see that we're all getting along." Jeremey commented, which made everyone laugh as they turned back towards the house.

"Fine, if it bothers you that much I'll go apologize to Julian, but you're not going to like him in ten more minutes." Andrew said, giving in to Zach's complaints.

"I highly doubt that." Zach replied, "He didn't seem all that bad."

* * *

><p>A few days had passed, and Zach had to admit that he had been wrong, they would have been much better off had they just allowed Andrew to send Julian off in tears on that first day. All he ever did was pester them with questions about their adventures, questions which he seemed to already know the answers to.<p>

What was even worse was when he brought Julie along, who was proving to be even more annoying than they had given her credit for the year before. It seemed as though the presence of her younger brother just magnified her ability to pester them, and by the end of the third day only Jeremey was even bothering to pretend that he cared about what she was saying anymore.

Still, more often than not Andrew's younger siblings wound up getting bored with how uninteresting the five of them actually were, and gave up with their questions for a few hours. These peaceful interludes between the pestering were generally the times when they chose to talk about serious matters, rather than the goofing around which they saved for when the younger two Knights were watching them.

On one such occasion, when Julian wandered off to go play with his miniature broomstick, James shut the door quietly and said "Alright look Zach, we need to talk, right now."

Generally speaking, no one thought too much of it when James said things like this, as it usually just meant that he had some kind of new prank in mind, though today was different. For once, James actually had something serious to say, as they were all about to find out.

Sitting back down in his chair, James bit his lip and said "Look Zach, no one wants to say it, but I'm going to. What's up with you man?" James had not quite noticed until this week, but Zach had been quiet and withdrawn all summer, and by that James meant more than he usually was. Zach had always been the quietest member of the group, but even by his standards he was being downright sullen lately.

"What're you talking about James?" Zach asked, clearly not in the mood to discuss this as he continued tossing a tiny model of a Quaffle up and down, catching it in one hand before tossing it back into the air before catching it again with the other and continuing the process over and over again. Zach was not even bothering to look at what he was doing, the movement was purely instinctual.

Jeremey and Andrew, for their part, had gone dead quiet, the pieces on the chessboard between them now shouting at them in their attempts to find out why their 'Generals' had suddenly forgotten about the 'battle' in which they were involved. From the significant look that they exchanged, James had a feeling that they had discussed this very question themselves, but were simply afraid to bring it up.

Albus seemed to have completely vanished, though James had not the slightest idea where he could have gone so quickly. Still, that did not really matter one way or another, this matter was better to be discussed just between the four of them. Albus was in the group sure, but he wasn't quite one of them, not exactly.

Accepting that neither Jeremey, nor Andrew, nor even Albus was going to help him, James sighed and said "You know what I mean Zach. Ever since that whole thing in the forest last year you…well, you've been acting like a total zombie." In retrospect, James wished that he had taken the time to plan this out in advance, calling his friend a zombie was probably not the best of ideas.

"Yea," Zach said, sounding very thoughtful, "Yea, that '_whole thing_ in the forest', you know just that little _thing_ where I found out that my birth parents - the ones I never knew – were probably a bunch of elitist shits who thought they were all that because they were in _Slytherin_!" Zach was in full on rant mode now, worse than James had ever seen him react to anything before … but then, he had been simmering over this all summer.

"I mean, they could have been Death Eaters for all I know! Did they _know_ we were descendents of Slytherin? Were they _proud_!" Zach had not taken one breath this entire time, and his face was beginning to get red. "I don't know who I am, and I certainly don't know who they were! How am I supposed to know who I am if I don't even know where I came from?" Zach had risen to his feet by now, and he had taken the model snitch in his hands and thrown in against the wall, somehow shattering what James had been pretty sure was very solid metal.

Of course, as James would later find out, Zach's outpouring of emotion was causing a veritable leak of magic, which was what had caused the metal ball to explode upon contact with the wall, but at the time he was just extremely concerned and confused by what was going on.

"Zach, it doesn't matter." James said, "Screw them, who cares what they thought about any of this, what matters is who _you_ are!" sympathetic was not a word that described James very well, and even now that was the case. Rather than trying to make Zach feel better about himself, James was basically trying to kick his butt until he moved on.

"Yea, you're one to talk James." Zach said, still fuming, but not quite yelling anymore.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" James demanded, significantly more annoyed now that he was being forced onto the defensive.

"Are you kidding?" Zach began incredulously, now starting to scream again, "Everything about you is defined by your family! You wear your names like they're medals! And you never shut up about your stupid grandfather and those idiots he hung around with, talking about how you're gonna live up to their legacy!"

"Hey you leave my granddad out of this!" James snapped, he had always been very touchy about his namesakes, even though he had never met either one of them. Then again, perhaps it was _because_ he had never met them that he felt this need to protect his image of them.

"See!" Zach said, as though this proved his point, "I can't just forget about who my parents are, or might have been, any more than you can forget about who your father is James."

James could not argue with this, Zach had a pretty damn good point there. He and Albus had always lived under the shadow of their father's accomplishments, and had spent most of their years struggling for some way to measure up.

James was struck silent by Zach's argument, but just then they were reminded that there were more than just two people in the room. "Zach, James is right." Came a shaky voice from beside them, and they turned to find that Andrew had finally mustered his courage and opened his mouth.

Jeremey, meanwhile, was slowly edging out of the way in case more stuff started getting thrown around, but Andrew held his ground and kept at it. His voice was still quivering, but he pressed on. "Those people, good or bad, are not your family." taking a deep breath, as though he were about to plunge into a pool, Andrew continued "They may be your parents, but there is more to family than just blood."

"Family is people who care about you, who are there for you, and who look after you and take care of you. These people haven't been there for you once in your entire life, they didn't even do you the courtesy of giving you a name, or theirs for that matter." Andrew was beginning to become more and more sure of himself, as though he had been waiting to say this all along and was only now beginning to agree with himself that he was having a very good idea.

"Your real mom and dad are in Beaconsfield Zach, your real parents are the ones you introduced us to, even if you don't share the same blood." Andrew said, determined to drive this out to the finish while James stared on dumbfounded, Andrew was actually sounding very reassuring.

"If family is so important to you, then you should remember that your real family, and the one whose actions is a reflection on you, and yours on them, is the one that raised you." Andrew concluded, now practically red in the face as he fell back onto his beanbag chair and took so deep of a breath that James was surprised there was any oxygen left in the room.

Zach did not say anything for a long time, he just stared at the wall quietly, still standing even as the others looked at him as though he were a bomb that could go off at any time. At least five minutes passed of Zach just standing there, thinking about Merlin only knew what, while the rest of them just looked up at him.

The minutes ticked on, and still none of them said so much as a word, at long last, Zach turned on his heel, strode over to the door and swung it open. As two small figures, kneeling with their ears to the door, leapt up with a start and bolted for the other side of the hallway, Zachary took one long glance back at them before closing the door.

They did not see him again the rest of the night, though Julian, after they had hunted him and Julie down and scolded them for spying, told them that he had seen Zach go hide himself in Andrew's room, presumably to continue thinking over whatever it was that was going on in his head.

"Diagon Alley tomorrow's gonna be a right treat." Andrew mumbled, shaking his head as his siblings walked off quietly, now looking a bit afraid that someone else was going to blow up too.

"Tomorrow?" Jeremey asked, the first time that he had talked in several minutes, "I'm more concerned about when we get back to Hogwarts to be honest. Do you think he's gonna be like this forever?"

"If you were so concerned about it, maybe you should have helped us cheer him up dip-wad!" James said, still bitter about the fact that Jeremey had left him and Andrew to fend for themselves.

"Yea, and be like you and just tick him off even more? Yea, that sounds like a great idea you moron!" Jeremey snapped.

"Guys, calm down now …" said Albus, who as it happened had hidden behind the couch when Zach had started to freak out. "There's no need for anyone else to get angry."

James and Jeremey exchanged one more menacing look before simultaneously sighing and sitting back down, this was looking to be a lot more complicated than any of them had thought that it was going to be.

"Look guys, we've just got to give Zach some space." Albus said, continuing to serve as the only available voice of reason. "He'll cool off, he's just had all of this crap bouncing around inside of his head all summer without anyone to talk to about it." Frowning at the very thought of it, Albus murmured quietly "I can't even imagine what it must have been like."

"Yea," Andrew agreed, "He couldn't even tell his parents about it or nothing … that must have been hard."

The others all nodded in assent, as much as they liked to think themselves as being too cool for such things, they all looked to their parents for advice and guidance whenever they were lost and confused, as they were sure Andrew was now.

"Well, tomorrow we'll just have to hope for the best." James said with a sigh, "Deep down, Zach knows that he's got nothing to do with those people, even if he's not quite ready to believe in it just yet. I get it, it's hard to accept some things about your family." James had recently found out more than a few things about his parents that he wasn't particularly happy about, such as the fact that his mum had dated Melinda Thomas' father. _Melinda Thomas!_ She was the most boring sack of patheticness on the planet!

"I dunno James, he seemed pretty far gone to me." Jeremey murmured, kicking his legs in bored frustration, which didn't even make the slightest of sense. But then, nothing really made sense at the moment, and James was beginning to think that this was a mystery that he was just never meant to understand.

But he had to understand it, because if he did not then he would most likely never get his friend back, or at the very least, not the friend that he had once known. He had suspected that Zach had probably not quite gotten over what had happened in the forest, what they had learned, but he had never thought that he would be _this_ affected by it. Though, looking back, it was probably very foolish of him to have missed it for all of this time.

"I guess we may as well go to sleep." Andrew said at last with a long sigh, after several minutes of silence had passed between them. "Zach's probably asleep by now anyways, and besides we're getting up early tomorrow."

That was a lame excuse and they all knew it, there was not a chance that Zach was already asleep at only 9:30, and no matter how early they were getting up the next day, the boys had never gone to bed early in their lives. No, the real reason that Andrew had suggested this, James was sure, was so that he could go and see how Zach was doing, a prospect which James was happy to leave to his friend rather than take it on himself.

Nodding knowingly at Andrew, James muttered "Good luck." Before the four parted ways and headed into the two rooms, James and Albus left to speculate in the dark about what was happening across the hall.

* * *

><p>Zach sat in the dark of Andrew's bedroom, still trying to mull over everything that had been flying through his head for the last several months. He did not know who was right, or who to believe, but what he did know was that there was definitely too much going on in his head for one person to deal with all at once.<p>

Glancing down at the golden bracelet on his wrist, Zach sighed and turned the thin band of metal over in his hands. He did not know the language from whence the glyph beneath his name came, but he knew what it meant. The question that he had been mulling over all summer was there right in front of his face, mocking him.

There was a creak behind him, and Zach threw himself down on his bed, the way he had always pretended to be asleep when he was little if he heard his parents coming upstairs while he was staying up late to read a book. No sooner had he done so than Andrew and Jeremey crept silently into the room, Zach remained prone on the bed, he did not feel like talking just yet.

His friends stood around awkwardly for a few moments, as though they knew that he were faking but didn't want to call him out on it. At last the two rolled onto their own (in Jeremey's case makeshift) beds and went to sleep, leaving Zach alone with his thoughts.

As the moonlight shone on him through the window, Zach glanced down once more at the bracelet on his right wrist, and closed his left hand over it protectively. "Friendship …" he murmured, the same word which the bracelet had been screaming to him all summer long.

**Looks like there are still a few wounds that have left to heal before the boys leave for Hogwarts, but is Zach the only one who is still feeling the effects of the past, or is someone else still bleeding inside as well?**

**Thanks again to everyone for following me, and don't forget to please REVIEW!**


	3. Chapter 3: Closure

Chapter Three: Closure

James awoke early the next morning, with the events of the night before still looming above his head like a grim shadow. He had been so sure that his plan was going to work, that Zach would have immediately thrown aside all of his self doubts and returned to being the cheerful if somewhat withdrawn boy that James had known for the last two years.

He should have known from the outset that it was not going to be that simple; it should have occurred to him that such matters were not so easily resolved. Especially to him, after all he knew from personal experience how the weight of a family name can hang over your head.

But no, he had not thought of these things, he had just rushed straight into action, and this had been the result. Now, not only was Zach still as sullen and downtrodden as ever, but he was now downright furious with the lot of them to cap it off!

He had spent most of the night before telling Albus that it was all his fault as the two brothers argued back and forth for half the night. Of course, it really wasn't anyone's fault, but it James was going to be forced to sleep on the floor then he sure as hell was going to make sure that something ruined Albus' night too.

James tiredly made his way down the stairs towards the kitchen, pausing outside when he heard Andrew talking in a hushed voice; from the sounds of things he was trying to explain what had happened to his parents, who no doubt had heard a fair deal of screaming the night before. Not wanting any involvement in such an undoubtedly awkward conversation, James doubled back around to the living room, sitting down silently on a couch beside a Julian Knight who was looking even tinier than normal.

James had not said very much to Julian during the last week, and to be perfectly honest he had always found the kid to be rather annoying, but he greeted Andrew's younger brother with a quiet "Hello." as he sat down, bracing himself for the barrage of questions that he was certain would be coming.

But it did not come, something which struck James as very odd considering that the younger boy had usually leapt at chances such as this to talk to him. Instead, the nine year old simply looked very pensive, an emotion that James had never seen reflected on his small face before. Julian looked subdued, and almost depressed, in direct contrast to the fired up kid that had been annoying James the night before.

It was almost as though Zach's depression was contagious, and was slowly but surely affecting each and every one of them! Though, if he had to guess, he would never have guessed that Julian would have fallen into that sinkhole. Then again, Julian may have just finally gotten fed up with having them ignore him all week.

With such a grim mood hanging over the group, James was not looking forward to their trip to Diagon Alley, and from the look of things Albus and Jeremey were having similar misgivings about the journey. The three did not speak, but from the silence that spread between them James knew that they were all feeling the same discomfort.

Julian eventually got up to leave, muttering something about needing to find something that he had lost somewhere, but it was evident that he just wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible. Far from being interesting to the boy, they were now started to freak him out with their depressive state. Andrew joined him a few minutes later, but still no one was speaking.

But when Zach finally made his way down the stairs, the tension reached an entirely new level. It was like each footstep that they heard approaching them was another nail being hammered into their collective social coffins. When at last Zach stood before them, not a one of them had anything to say to their friend, not even an awkward 'hello'.

The silence, it seemed, was going to stretch on forever, indeed there was no certainty that they were ever going to say another word between them. They just sat there, or in Zach's case stood there, glancing around at the people surrounding them and waiting for someone to say something. But James wasn't going to be the one to say something this time, not after how things had gone last night.

At last the silence was broken, shattering to the winds by the last person that James would have expected to have opened his mouth. It was Zach who had spoken, sounding not angry as he had the night before, but instead with a sense of calm and resignation that James had not expected to hear.

"You guys are right." Zach said at last, crossing his arms as though ashamed to admit it for whatever reason. James did not see why considering that all he was 'admitting' was that he wasn't destined to be some kind of evil dark wizard, but then James had never understood Zach particularly well. Jeremey and Andrew he could read easily, but Zach had always been a little more distant to him.

Zach seemed to be waiting for someone to say something, but the others seemed just as stunned as James. At last, Zach sighed and continued rather haltingly "I mean, I can't just let my life be run by what people who lived thousands of years ago did … right?" From the sound of things, Zach was still not totally convinced of what he was saying either, and the collective silence of his closest friends was probably not helping him either.

Shaking his head, whether at the rest of them or at himself James was not sure, Zach continued "Well, I figured it was like you said James … I'm my own person aren't I? I should be able to just live my life without having to think about what they did or didn't do. I mean, I don't even know what my parents were like, they could have been perfectly good people just as easily as they could have been horrible."

The longer Zach talked the more he sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince them, and the result was rather pathetic. It was almost like he was asking someone to rescue him from himself by saying something, but everyone still seemed too shocked and unnerved by the events of the last twenty four hours to say anything.

Naturally, this was not how Zach had envisioned this to go, as he looked at the lot of them with an expression of the utmost frustration and said "Come on guys! This is supposed to be the part where you all say something mushy and encouraging and we all hug or something."

"Well Zach, if you're into that kind of stuff then I'd recommend seeing a counselor." came the reply at last, out of Jeremey's mouth before any of them could stop him. The rest of them could only look on in horror as Jeremey shrugged and continued without any shame "I mean, that's pretty damn gay dude."

James glanced from Zach to Jeremey and back again in rapid succession, Jeremey still seemed very amused by what he no doubt viewed as a clever comment, whilst Zach seemed to be thinking that Jeremey was literally too stupid to describe. At last Zach took a step towards Jeremey, causing everyone to flinch slightly. "You are the most insensitive son of a gun I have ever met!" Zach remarked, shaking his head with what could only be described as disbelief.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Zach laughed and clapped Jeremey on the shoulder saying "Thanks, I think I needed that." causing James to stand up in protest. This was absolutely ridiculous, he had tried to be nice and had gotten shouted at, but Jeremey makes some insulting comment and gets thanked for it.

"Are you kidding me!" James demanded, "I spend all of last night trying to cheer you up, but you're gonna roll out the 'thank you's for Jeremey after he _insults_ you!" It just didn't seem right to James, what was the point of trying to be nice if you didn't even get the credit for it?

Zach, for his part, just shrugged and said "What can I say James, nice people respond to that crap, and people like us just need to get our butts kicked. We're just not nice people I guess."

James just grumbled and shook his head in annoyance; it was hard to argue with that sentiment.

"Hey hold up a second!" Andrew protested, actually looking as though he was offended by Zach's comment "I am a very caring individual!"

"Sure you are Andy," Jeremey retorted as if on cue, "That's why you didn't have anything to do with Parker's trunk exploding when he got off the Hogwarts Express in June, right?" The incident in question had actually been Andrew's idea, something that was rarely said about the boy's pranks, but it had been one of the most memorable of the year.

"Hey that was different!" Andrew said immediately, though he was beginning to grin, "You can't say that he didn't have it coming!"

"Maybe not, but you're hardly a goody-two-shoes either." James pointed out.

"Yea, well you guys don't have anything on me." Albus said, grinning as though he already knew what was coming, "I'm as clean as an angel."

The others all laughed simultaneously, as saying that Albus Potter was innocent of any crimes was almost as funny as claiming that James was. Though Albus liked to maintain his front of being a studious and respectful boy, the truth was that he could be just as mischievous as James when he wanted to be; though it was true that he exercised both restraint and common sense a bit more than James, and yes he did study quite a bit more.

"What?" Albus asked, pretending that he hadn't the slightest idea what any of them were talking about.

Adopting a lofty stance, Jeremey began in a lofty legal tone "May I offer Exhibit A, Halloween of 2017 into evidence?" bowing in the general direction of the others.

While everyone else was too busy cracking up, Zach bowed back and replied "Evidence admitted counselor, so long as you note the events of September 23, 2017."

"Oh no, you did not just go there!" challenged James and Albus simultaneously, recalling the all-night spectacle of insanity that had taken place on the night of Jeremey's birthday.

"And let us not forget the night of December the 10th, or April 27th for that matter." Jeremey said, nodding with a sense of importance as he besmirched the already bad names of his other friend's birthdays.

When the laughter subsided, James shook his head and said to the group as a whole, "So I think it's safe to say that we're probably the five rottenest kids in all of Hogwarts?"

"Damn straight!" Albus agreed, adopting a 'gangsta' voice and crossing his arms in what they could only assume was some kind of made-up gang sign.

"OK, can we all agree that Albus is never allowed to do that ever again?" Jeremey asked immediately upon seeing Albus' attempt to look some kind of 'cool dude'.

"Agreed!" came the reply from the lips of the other three before Albus had so much as a moment to protest, an annoyance that was not lost on the younger boy.

"You guys suck!" Albus said, crossing his arms and pouting as everyone poked fun at his attempt to sound like some kind of punk, though why he wanted to do this in the first place as Albus had never shown any tendencies towards being a punk of any kind … that had always seemed more like James' thing.

Having just confirmed that they were terrible people, James patted Albus on the head and said "Gee Al, thanks. I didn't know you thought so highly of me."

Albus took a moment to understand this, but once he did he joined the others in laughing before shoving James away and saying "Shut up!"

It was strange, but being that this was James and Albus that was an unusually kind conversation.

* * *

><p>In light of Zach's brightened mood, the planned trip to Diagon Alley to pick up their new books went forward with much greater enthusiasm. Since there were not going to be any new students between them, they were hoping that it would not take them nearly as long to get all of their supplies as the last few years had been.<p>

Of course, their cousin Dominique was going to be starting her first year at Hogwarts that year, but James and Albus were planning to not be anywhere near their cousin when she got her stuff. It wasn't because they didn't want to see their cousin, but simply because they didn't want to have to put up with the arduous process of shopping for First Year supplies.

The others were more than willing to go along with this plan, as it meant that they only needed to stop at one or two shops before they would be done and could spend the rest of their day doing fun stuff. Andrew had suggested going to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, a place which had supposedly been open since before the War! Apparently the guy who had once ran the place had been killed by Death Eaters or something … which obviously made the place very cool!

James on the other hand had suggested that they head by Quality Quidditch Supplies so that they could check out the newest broomstick models. He had sort of hoped that seeing all of the shiny new broomsticks might make Albus more inclined to finally try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team; plus he actually sort of wanted to check out the brooms himself, even though his Nimbus 3000 was still one of the best brooms out there.

The first place where they had to go was naturally Flourish and Blotts, which consisted of the bulk of their required supplies, which included a large number of books which James found dead boring. He needed to take a few new classes this year because for some reason Hogwarts thought that it was necessary to torture Third Years even further. James, naturally, had signed up for the two classes which had seemed the easiest to him: Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies.

Even though Muggles seem like the most boring people in the entire world, James figured that the things that his Grandad had said over the years would be enough of a background to allow him to coast through the class without much effort; which was how he preferred to get through most of his classes.

Andrew and Jeremey had just signed up for the same classes as James, but Zach had chosen to take Arithmancy over Care of Magical Creatures because, as he put it, he had gotten enough of the Forbidden Forest for several lifetimes. James had been disappointed, but he could hardly blame Zach, he didn't have that great of memories from that place either, but there was not much that could keep James away from a place as cool as the Forbidden Forest.

Still, at least they would have Muggle Studies together, a class which James thought seemed so easy that they could probably sleep through each and every class and still get an 'O'. Actually, come to think of it, James was probably going to have to try really hard in order to ensure that his grade in that class was not too high! He could only imagine what it was going to be like. Question One: 'Why don't Muggles use magic?' Answer: 'Because they're boring.' Done, can I have my 'O' now?

Andrew did not think that the class was going to be quite so easy, but the others had silenced him with quick dismissal, obviously he was completely mistaken. All he was concerned about was how many essays they were going to be assigned, for some reason he had a feeling that there was going to be a lot of writing in this class. And even worse, it was inconceivable that they were going to be using any magic at all, a fact which upset James greatly.

But the thing that had really scared James was the book that they had picked up from Flourish and Blotts, which was by far the largest volume that James had ever held in his hands. It was so big that he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to carry it around all day without his back splitting down the middle.

"I'm never going to be able to read this whole thing." James complained as he hoisted the text off of the shelf. It was so big that he literally almost dropped it, though that might have been because he was balancing on a lower-shelf in order to reach it.

"What difference does it make?" Zach asked as James began passing four copies of the books down to them. "It's not like you're even going to try." He pointed out, a comment which James could not really contradict, nor could he slap Zach because he was still too busy balancing on a bookshelf.

As he stepped down, James angrily snatched his book off the top of the stack which Zach was holding, quite an impressive feat to be sure. Those books combined probably weighed more than James! "Well, _you'll_ never be able to finish it then!" James retorted with some annoyance, knowing that Zach would actually read every assignment that their Professor gave them.

Still, it wasn't like James begrudged Zach his reading, if nothing else it made it easier for James to find someone to copy his papers off of, but it still struck James as rather odd that Zach was so studious when the rest of them didn't really care. Well, Albus aside of course … but Albus clearly did not count because, well, he was Albus.

* * *

><p>It had not taken more than a few hours before they were finally done with their school shopping, and the boys had immediately ditched Andrew's parents and ran to the ice cream parlour, which Zach had insisted was not as cool as they all thought it was. Of course, James and Albus had been there many times before, but for some reason it still had this mysterious air around it because of its previous owner's tragic story.<p>

After they had ordered their ice cream, they took it with them on their way towards Quality Quidditch Supplies and the topic immediately turned to James' favorite topic of conversation, and Albus' least favorite: the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. It wasn't that Albus didn't love Quidditch, or support Gryffindor in its efforts to win the Quidditch Cup for the first time in half a decade, but he seemed to be adamantly against James' efforts to get him to join the Quidditch Team and grew extremely angry when James kept bringing it up.

From the moment that the conversation was brought up, Albus seemed to slowly slip behind them in the hopes that they would forget that he was there and just leave him alone, but James had no such intentions of leaving Albus out of this conversation.

"So Andrew, you planning on making the team this year, or are you gonna keep at it with your perennial runner-up strategy?" Zach teased. Andrew had been the last cut at Chaser each of the last two years, and was insisting that this was going to be his year! Still, what kind of friends would they be if they didn't do their best to make him sweat it out a little?

"You _know_ I got cheated out last year!" Andrew replied bitterly, clearly still harboring at least a little bit of anger over being cut from the team the year before in what he viewed as a grossly unfair fashion. James could not blame him, Andrew had probably outperformed all of his competition that year, but he had been cut probably because he was younger. Still, he was going to have his chance this year.

"Yea yea, well just make sure that you don't get cheated again this year." Zach replied with a grin, they all knew that his words were seriously getting to Andrew even if he did not want any of them to know it. After two great tryouts he had not made the cut either time, and that had to have instilled at least a little doubt in his head.

"Mitchie's a cool dude," Jeremey interrupted, referring to Sixth Year Chaser Mitchel Gate who was undoubtedly the new Gryffindor Captain as he was the only returning player who was not represented there at the time. "He won't play favorites." He said, sounding fully confident of his statement.

"Well, all things aside," James said, stopping dead in his tracks and turning around to face Albus, who was now following a full ten feet behind them at the very least. "Al, stop hiding behind old women like the little pansy you are and get over here."

Everyone paused and turned around while an annoyed looking Albus walked quietly up to them. "Yea, what's up James?" Albus asked, as though he did not already know. Of course he knew what James was about to get at, he had brought it up dozens of times that summer.

"So, seeing as we're on the topic of Quidditch," James began casually, as though there was little to no importance to what he was saying before suddenly and immediately changing pace "Are you going to try out for the Quidditch Team by yourself or am I going to have to attach your broomstick to your lazy arse with a permanent sticking charm?"

Albus gave James a dirty look before replying "Why do I even have to tryout James? I don't _have _to play Quidditch you know!"

"Except for the fact that you totally want to and you know it!" James snapped back, this was nothing new, their conversations on the matter had never gotten much further than this. "I mean, why do you keep telling us that you don't want to tryout?"

"Merlin's shirt James!" Albus snapped "Don't we get enough attention already without having to put a giant spotlight above us? Is your life so quiet that you want to have the entire school staring at you every now and then to break through the monotony, because if so then you must have your head so far up in the clouds that you can't even see the hallways that you think you own!"

"So you do want to play!" James said, ignoring the rest of what Albus had said in favor of the bit that had actually mattered to him. James was like that, he could be very selective when it came to which parts of your conversation he listened to.

"Yea I do," Albus admitted rather quietly, "But what difference does it make James? We're not dad James, and we're never going to be him, so why should we just give everyone yet another reason to compare us to him!"

James sighed, it always came back to this with Albus, it was like he was afraid to do anything that could even remotely be compared to their father because of the enormous shadow that he had cast over the entire family. James for his part had never seen this in the same light as Albus had, viewing it as kind of cool rather than limiting. That way, once he was done, his shadow would stretch even further!

"So rather than try to ignore it you're just going to let dad's past control your life?" James asked, "Isn't that what we just told Zach _not _to do? Al, if you spend all of your time making sure that you don't do anything that dad did then you're going to spend your whole life in his shadow just as much as if you did all of the same things that he did!"

"James, just leave it be." Andrew warned, but James was never the type to just leave things be, as they all well knew. This was what happened when an unstoppable force like James met an immoveable object like Albus, and the epic clash of wills was one which they had all seen played out countless times before.

"I'm not going to do it James!" Albus shouted back, "I'm not going to just fly out there and watch everyone gawk at me like I'm something in a zoo, I'm not going to deal with this kind of crap! I get enough of it every day without having to put a giant spotlight over me!"

"What is a spotlight anyway?" Zach asked as Jeremey and Andrew both turned to shut him up. Interrupting James and Albus in an argument like this was not something that anyone would ever want to do in their right minds.

"You are such a baby!" James snapped, "You're not going to have fun because you're afraid that it's too close to something dad did, am I getting that right?" he asked, oblivious to the fact that passing people in the streets were now pausing to stare at them … ironically enough the very thing that Albus had just said he did not want.

"No of course you don't have it right because you're a fat doo-doo head!" Albus snapped back, forgetting all about dignity in his anger and desire to lash out at James in retribution. Meanwhile, Andrew was trying to herd them all inside and away from the crowds and onto one of the less crowded side-alleys.

"Baby!" James retorted, sticking his tongue out at Albus as Jeremey pulled him off the street.

"Wuss!" Albus retorted, the two now reduced to one word insults as they were more or less dragged onto a deserted side-alley where they would be away from the nosey crowds.

"Alright look, can we talk about this later?" Jeremey hissed, "Yes we all agree that Albus is a little crybaby and James is an idiot but is now really the time to point all of these things out?" Jeremey never could take anything seriously, it was almost a sickness, and at times like these it really ticked James off.

"Fine, whatever." James said, crossing his arms and turning away from Albus, he did not want to even look at his brother right now. He could not tell for sure, but from the shuffling noise behind him he was pretty sure that his brother was doing the very same thing.

"Good, everyone's ticked off again, great way to end the day." Andrew groaned, "Now can we just get out of here before someone ends up killing someone?"

In all fairness, James and Albus spent a good majority of their time wanting to kill each other so this was nothing new, but James agreed that it was probably best to just get back to Andrew's before any of them did anything stupid. Amazingly enough, James was actually thinking logically for once! That in and of itself was something to be rather concerned about, but then again it had been a rather weird couple of days.

* * *

><p>The trip back to Andrew's was a very quiet one, the boys were dead quiet for the second time that day as they walked back towards the Leaky Cauldron where they met Andrew's parents whom they followed through the fireplace and back to Manchester. Though they were able to compose themselves enough to actually speak to one another once they had gotten back the conversation was much more subdued than it had been earlier in the day. It seemed like this 'vacation' of sorts at Andrew's was one that was fated to be filled with troubles and grievances and was just never going to work out long enough for everyone to actually get along with everyone else for longer than a few hours at a time at the very most.<p>

When at last the five boys went off to bed, James was rather unnerved about the prospect of sharing a room with Albus again. The two had a very bad history when it came to rooming together and it was amazing that, spitting contest aside, it had been going over so well in this instance. But after their fight earlier that day, it seemed as though the tension was ready to explode.

James was still debating whether or not he needed to stay awake all night waiting for Albus to kill him in his sleep when his younger brother spoke to him directly for the first time since their argument that afternoon.

"Does Gryffindor have three Chasers?" he asked, a question which struck James as odd considering that Albus probably knew the answer to that question better than he himself did. Still, he didn't want to start a fight over nothing in such close proximity to Andrew's parents, who probably wanted to throw them all out of the house at this point.

"Erm, no we only have two." James responded before asking rather hesitantly "Why?"

"Well," Albus said with what seemed to be a bored demeanor about him, "Seeing as one of the two is already a piece of garbage," he paused long enough here to gesture at James pointedly before continuing "It just wouldn't be fair if Gryffindor had to deal with another sub-par Chaser."

James was so stunned that for a moment he did not even realize that he had been insulted. When the words sunk in a moment later, James asked in amazement "Are you saying that you're gonna join the team?" in his mind the process of trying out already meant the same thing as getting onto the team.

Albus shrugged as he rolled onto the bed and replied "Well, someone has to make up for the complete detriment to the team that you are."

It took James a moment to register what Albus had just said, and in that brief moment Albus had time for a good laugh before James shut him up with a pillow to the face.

Coughing as his laughter was stopped by the blow to his face, Albus said with a grin "Oh it is so on now!"

"Yea, and you're going down!" James replied as the two began whacking each other as hard as they possibly could with the pillows in their hands. James wasn't sure what pillow fights were like between other brothers, but when the Potter brothers had pillow fights they were not playful in the slightest. The two were all but attempting to decapitate the other with a pillow, even if they were having plenty of fun whilst doing it.

Well, if nothing else it was good practice for the beating that they were going to take from Bludgers in the upcoming season … even if they were just pillows. Maybe it was just James' imagination, but it sure felt like Albus had hit him with that pillow harder than any Beater had ever sent a Bludger at him.

Merlin! It was a good thing Albus wasn't trying out to be a Beater!

**I apologize for the long delay guys, College Orientation and the 4th of July have left me without much time lately, but with any luck I'll be able to get right back on schedule. Besides 1 1/2 weeks between chapters isn't _that_ long of a wait by my standards, if I recall I've gone over a month once or twice.** ^_^

**But like I said, I'm trying to do it properly this time, with something of a regular updating schedule, which I think I may have worked out, but I'm not making any promises just yet.  
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**But anyways, thanks to all for reading, I hope you continue to follow me and above all that you REVIEW! :)**

**To those reading this at the time of publication, I hope you had a happy 4th of July! :)**

**DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW! :)  
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	4. Chapter 4: Changing Tactics

Chapter Four: Changing Tactics

The day before the start of Term rose before any of the boys were ready for it, they were really enjoying their summer now that the lot of them were able to hang out together, and all that the start of Term represented to them know was more classes and teachers and all of the stupid rules that they tried to enforce.

Still, there was one day of summer left, and James was determined to wring every ounce of enjoyment from it that he possibly could! The day before he and Albus had been forced to meet their parents in London to spend the day with the Scamanders, whose mother was supposedly another one of their parents' old school friends.

Though Lily had always found the Scamander family interesting, probably because she was partially named after Mrs. Scamander, James and Albus had always been rather frightened by the strange Scamander children, a pair of identical twin brothers named Lorcan and Lysander. Lorcan and Lysander were almost impossible to tell apart, and their rather tall build and perfect blond hair made them look almost like robots.

But it was not their appearance that unnerved James and Albus, it was their rather bizarre personalities. Now, James and Albus were hardly the most ordinary of children, but Lorcan and Lysander made them look even more boring than their Uncle Percy. It wasn't that they were exceptionally fun people though, they were just, as James saw it, completely out of their minds!

The fact that Lorcan and Lysander would be starting Hogwarts that year had scarcely even occurred to the Potter bothers, and now that it had crossed their minds they were not unduly interested by that knowledge. They had never been very good friends with either of the twin brothers, despite the fact that their parents had certainly tried to make them get along many times, and they highly doubted that they would be in Gryffindor House – James' money was on Hufflepuff.

But that was neither here nor there, as neither of the Scamander brothers had any interest in talking about Houses, or Quidditch, or Hogwarts, or any of the other normal things that incoming Hogwarts students liked to talk about. Instead, all they wanted to talk about was their latest family vacation to Sweden where they had been hunting for Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, a creature which neither James nor Albus had ever heard of.

"We were very close too." Lorcan said as Lysander nodded in agreement, "Mum believes that what we heard was their mating calls when we were outside Stockholm, but they must have run off when we got closer." James and Albus were looking at the boy like he had just grown a third arm, but he seemed not to have noticed.

Lysander seemed to have noticed some confusion on their part, but he misinterpreted it badly as he explained "The Snorkack is a very shy creature, they don't like the presence of humans very much. That was why mum was so disappointed that we came so close but missed it, you don't get a chance like that often."

James and Albus had decided long ago that they were just to nod with disinterest whenever Lorcan and Lysander started talking like this, but they were far too confused to do anything but stare. James wondered whether this was some kind of practical joke, though he could not for the life of him see where the fun might have come from.

"What are they like?" asked Lily, who clearly had not realized that these 'Crump-Headed Snorers' did not actually exist. Still, Lily was only ten years old so perhaps they should have given her a bit of a break on that count. It wasn't her fault that she still believed in clearly made up things like this, though James wondered where the Scamanders had gotten this idea from, and why they seemed incapable of realizing that it didn't exist.

After all, James was thirteen years old and _he _realized that it didn't make any sense! If Mrs. Scamander had really gone to school with his parents then she must be at least three or four hundred years old … you know, or something like that … so why was she so convinced of this ridiculous tale?

Albus seemed to just be content to nod in agreement and wait until the two were done with their tirade, but James had never been quite so good at keeping his mouth shut. "Are you yanking my wand?" James asked with an expression that plainly displayed his disbelief.

There was a noticeable pause as the twins looked at him with equally confused expressions. "What do you mean James?" Lysander asked, looking at James as though his interruption had been completely unrelated to the topic at hand.

"Oh, I know." Lorcan said, grinning and punching Lysander on the arm. "This is one of James' jokes. Good one James." Lorcan looked somewhat amused, though in a 'I don't get it' kind of way. Clearly Lorcan did not think much of what he thought to be James' odd sense of humor, but did not want to be rude by saying so out loud.

"No," James interrupted "I mean, obviously there's no such thing as a … what did you call them … Cranky Snorter?" Noticing the expressions of bewilderment on their faces, James changed pace and said "Oh come off it, you can't actually believe that!"

Lorcan shook his head whilst Lysander continued staring at James in disbelief, before turning to Lily and asking "Is your brother always this much of a killjoy?" a question which had probably never once in the history of the universe been asked of James Potter.

Lily, however, did not seem to find the question so strange, as she shrugged and said "James just doesn't believe in anything that he can't see right in front of him." a statement which caused both James and Albus to look at Lily like she had said Hogwarts was a stupid school, whilst Lorcan and Lysander nodded and muttered what a shame that was.

Needless to say, it was not an afternoon that went very well. James had stormed off by the end of the second hour, and Albus had later told him that the conversation had not gotten any more … normal … as time went on, as Lily continued to encourage the Scamander twins to spout their ridiculous stories. And, to cap it all off, James got a lecture from his parents about how embarrassed they had been that he had stormed off in the middle of their lunch!

It wasn't like you could blame him, listening to the Scamander twins telling him that he needed to stop being so closed minded got pretty damn old after the first five seconds or so, and so two hours was much more than they could have expected of him. Even Albus admitted that he had started tuning them out pretty early on.

So after a day like that, there was little question that James needed a long fun filled day to get him through before they had to take the train back to Hogwarts the next day.

* * *

><p>In the end, it had been Zach who finally came up with the idea for what they should do, an idea that was so good that James was angry that he himself had not thought of it. Rather than spend the entire day running around like a pack of frenzied Billywigs, they would be better off taking a moment to relax before they returned to school.<p>

After all, between classes and Quidditch and the necessity to maintain their reputations as troublemakers, it was a pretty draining school year for the Gryffindors, and the upcoming year was looking to be no different.

Now James Potter was not the kind of person who just took days off to rest, but after everything that had happened over the last year … especially from June on … he would have been a fool to refuse a day to just unwind and, as Zach put it, debrief themselves of everything that was going on. And besides, Andrew looked as though he might club James over the head if he refused.

So it had been settled that they would spend the day in Andrew's basement, away from the prying ears of his parents and siblings … as well as the sweltering summer heat … talking over everything that seemed noteworthy going into their Third Year. Of course, no one worded it quite like that, as 'talking about things' was decidedly unmanly, but that was essentially what they were doing.

Of course, no matter how they had reasoned it out to themselves, they all knew what it was they were doing, and once they finally set out to do it, they all felt far too self-conscious to actually bring something up. After all, they were guys, and everyone knew that guys did not cry to anyone else about their problems, they just kept them to themselves.

But at last, Jeremey was the one who found a way around that rule, "Well," he said, startling everyone by breaking the long silence, "I dunno about you lot, but I'm sure glad that pus-sucker _Parker_ is gone!"

They were all relieved, for griping about someone whom they hated was well within the range of acceptable conversation without having their toughness called into question, and so everyone quickly jumped onto the bashing bandwagon.

"Oh yea, I had forgotten." James murmured, grinning slightly to himself at the realization that he would not have to put up with the hated Remington Parker ever again. Remington Parker was an older Slytherin student who had delighted in proving to younger Gryffindors that – at least in his own mind – he was the coolest and toughest kid in all of Hogwarts.

Needless to say, this had not gone over too well with James and his friends, and the older Slytherin had become their Public Enemy Number One. With him graduating from Hogwarts at last, it was as though a cloud had just moved aside from the sun, allowing it to shine fully down on them once more.

"Glad to be rid of him." Agreed Andrew, "He's scum, just like everyone else in that good for nothing House!"

"What about Scorpius?" Albus interjected defensively, Albus had always been rather good friends with Scorpius Malfoy, and he had done his best to make his brothers' friends agree with him. Unfortunately, the older Gryffindors had just too many grievances with Slytherin House to ever let Scorpius off the hook entirely.

"Yea well, we still don't know that he's not gonna be a turncoat like Leon do we?" Zach muttered angrily. Leon Bartlett had been the one Slytherin that the Gryffindors had always respected, but he had turned his back on them in their Second Year, and after a heated argument they had not spoken once. Zach, for some reason, had always been the most vengeful; even James had long since stopped hating Leon … though he was still quite bitter to be sure.

"Oh come on that's not fair!" Albus protested, still feeling the need to protect his friend even though he was never going to win in such company. Even though they had always tolerated Scorpius' presence, and even come to be somewhat friendly with him, none of them had ever come to truly trust him. Even James was always a little suspicious of the boy, perhaps in part because he bore the surname of Malfoy.

"Maybe not, but you've gotta admit that he comes from a family of squealers." Jeremey pointed out rather grimly. Jeremey had always had more of a problem with Scorpius than the rest of them, seemingly unable to put aside his inset hatred of Slytherin. James found this ironic as Jeremey had not even known anything about the Houses and their rivalries prior to coming to Hogwarts as he was from North America, but even Leon had never been able to fully gain Jeremey's respect.

"And I suppose we're judging everyone by their families now." Interrupted a voice, but it was not Albus who had spoken, it was Zach, who was now looking as though he wanted nothing more than to punch himself in the gut. Everyone was looking at him with the expression of the utmost shock.

"Wait, _you're_ getting matey with the Slytherins now?" James exclaimed indignantly.

"Well, I guess I'm saying we can't judge him by who his family is, I mean … you guys just told me that you couldn't make generalizations like that." Zach looked as though he was going to be physically ill, and James understood why. He was actually empathizing with Scorpius Malfoy, and friendly though they may be with the boy, they all professed almost daily that he was an annoying prat; though this was more on principle than anything else.

No one could think of anything to say in reply to this, though they all tried several times. Albus just smiled smugly and patted Zach once or twice on the back. Albus had been trying to shove his crap about unity between the Houses on them for the last year, and now it looked like Zach had finally given in. James, for his part, was quite ashamed of Zach, and he was pretty sure the others agreed with him.

It seemed that they were not going to agree on this issue, there were just too many complications involved and James knew it. After all, like it or not, Scorpius had become their friend over the course of their last year at Hogwarts, and the problem was that they actually did like the kid. If he had just been in a different House this would have been so easy, but of course nothing in their lives would ever be quite so easy. Their principled hatred of Slytherins, combined with the way that the situation with Leon had turned out just made it hard to openly admit that they were friends with a Slytherin … much less Scorpius Malfoy.

Unfortunately, it was difficult to find another safe conversation topic that would not violate any of the long list of things that they were not permitted to talk about. Most of the things which James wanted to talk about had already taken been discussed already, and bringing them up again was only going to make things even more awkward than they already were.

Remembering the topic of conversation that he and Albus had unsuccessfully tried to broach with Lorcan and Lysander the day before just before he had stormed off in frustration, James said "So guys, what do you think of our chances to win the Quidditch Cup this year?" This was even better than their hatred of Remington, as not only was it a totally acceptable topic of conversation, but it would hopefully hold them over long enough to get this uncomfortable business out of the way.

Merlin's pants, how had this seemed like such a good idea the other day? Maybe James was just really lazy. In retrospect, he had probably thought that this was going to run sort of like a military debriefing, but instead it was going more like an awkward attempt at a heart to heart conversation … and a failed one at that.

Quidditch, however, seemed to be a perfectly safe avenue of conversation for the five boys, as they quickly were off on Gryffindor's chances. "Well obviously the Cup is going to be ours this year!" Jeremey declared, which was no less than James expected. Of course, Jeremey _had_ been saying that every year for the last three years, so that might not be saying very much.

"I dunno," Zach said, Zach had been on the team the year before but was not quite so cocky as James and Jeremey about Gryffindor's chances. Zach was much more realistic about things, but even he seemed to be very optimistic, if cautiously so. "Well, Nick was an incredible Keeper, and it's not like those grow on trees."

James paused, he had not considered that just yet. Zach was right, it was not going to be easy to find a Chaser of the quality of Nicholas Hayden, who had been virtually unbeatable for Gryffindor last year. Keepers were a vital part of any Quidditch Team, and they were very hard to come by to boot.

"There's gotta be someone in Gryffindor who can step up though." Andrew said, Andrew was perhaps the most excited of the lot, certain that his first year on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team would end in glorious victory for their House. "I mean, Nick was a superb Keeper, but we don't need to find someone as good as him, we just need someone who can keep us in Matches don't we?"

James was not convinced though, as he shook his head slowly and replied "I don't think that's gonna work out too well Andy, our Chasers weren't too good defensively last year, and I don't think that's gonna change, whoever we put between the hoops is gonna need to be pretty good or we're gonna get thrashed out there."

Andrew looked like he was about to protest, but Jeremey beat him to it "James is right, I mean Ravenclaw's lineup is too good, they'd rip a lesser Keeper to shreds!" Ravenclaw's Chasers had gotten progressively better by virtue of having played together for so long, and were now especially deadly. They were one of the main reasons that Ravenclaw had won the Quidditch Cup the year before.

"Yea well, we're still gonna have the two best Beaters in all of Hogwarts this year!" Andrew declared proudly, punching a bemused looking Zach on the shoulder. Zach was not the only one taking Andrew's words with a rather large grain of salt. Even James had struggled mightily in the transition into the much more competitive world of Hogwarts Quidditch. Jeremey was the best example of this, after a few lucky catches in Gryffindors first few Matches in their rookie year, Jeremey had repeatedly come up short in the most important moments.

So when Andrew was confident that he would instantly become one of the best Beaters in all of Hogwarts, the others were reasonably skeptical, they were not even sure that Andrew would be on the team yet, though he certainly seemed to have the best shot at it. By the same token, Albus was being very quiet about his own perceived chances of making the team, as though afraid that if he even mentioned it he would jinx himself.

Andrew however, had no such reservations, and quickly brought Albus right into the middle of things, whether the younger boy wanted to or not. "Can you just imagine if all five of us made the team?" he demanded excitedly, "That would make for an interesting lineup, hell we'd have half the team sleeping in the same room!"

The others just gave Andrew looks of feigned interest in what he was saying, to be honest none of them had given that very much thought. Yea, James supposed that it would be cool, but he was just more concerned with making the best Gryffindor Team that he possibly could, even though the decision did not come down to him in any way.

James knew that Mitchel was going to pick a great roster, so he didn't know why he was freaking out so much, but he just could not help but worry. Having come so close to winning the Cup once before, he wanted more than anything to be able to claim that victory as his, and he was afraid that his chances were just slipping away from him.

"When you've returned to planet earth," Jeremey said to Andrew, slapping the boy on the back of the head, "Maybe you could tell us why the 'best Beater in Hogwarts' didn't even make the cut for his House Team last year?" Jeremey was grinning like an idiot once again, a surefire sign that he was just trying to stir up trouble again … and he was doing a pretty good job at it.

Andrew looked at Jeremey like he wanted to strangle him, a sentiment that most of Hogwarts had shared at one point or another, including James himself. Jeremey was his best friend, and last June they had become Blood Brothers, but sometimes he wondered if the other boy was just being deliberately stupid.

Amazingly though, Andrew seemed completely disinterested as he waved aside Jeremey's question with a simple "Yea well, I've gotten better since then." An interesting reply coming from Andrew, who had adamantly insisted all along that favoritism was involved. But then, James suspected that he was just trying not to rise to Jeremey's bait.

"If that's the case," James said, looking at Jeremey as though daring him to try something again, "Then we're gonna be in very good shape." It was a very alarming set of circumstances when James was being the responsible one, but what with everything else that was going on, James didn't want to have to see another fight break out over something as stupid as this.

They had all agreed that Gryffindor's chances were excellent, but of course it would never be enough to just leave it at that, and it was Zach who reminded them of the fact that was hanging over their heads at all times whether they acknowledged it or not.

"Yea well," he began dramatically, "So long as we don't get dragged out into the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the Match again." Zach, clearly, had not forgotten about the fact that their last two school years had been plagued by events outside of their control, and how both times they had wound up in the Forbidden Forest because of something to do with Quidditch.

The others, including Albus, all groaned in frustration at Zach's words.

"Not this again." "Come on Zach!" "I thought we were done with this?" "For crying out loud!" came the calls from the others as Zach raised his hands defensively. "Hey, am I wrong?" he pointed out, a fact which none of them could contradict.

OK, so some weird stuff had happened to them, weird even by the standards of students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but there was no reason to think that anything of that nature would happen again. They had all agreed that there was no way the Magical History Movement could have survived the blow that they had dealt to it in June when they stopped them once again from achieving their ends. Unpopular, and without a leader … as they saw it … the Movement was probably dead.

Besides, who was going to respect … much less fear … a group of Dark Wizards which had twice been defeated by a bunch of school kids? The Magical History of Movement was a laughingstock, and no one believed that they were any kind of threat to anyone anymore. Surely they had disbanded by now!

"Alright then," James said, standing up and turning to each of the others in turn as he said "Let's make a pact then shall we? Let's make a pact saying that we're not going to go meddling into any of that stuff anymore. We're done playing at heroes, and we're done chasing crazy nutters in hoods into the Forbidden Forest."

"Yea!" declared Zach loudly, rising to his feet next to James, "No one ever asked us if we wanted to do this crap! To heck with it I say, it isn't our job to deal with these people, we've done our part but we're done!"

It had not yet occurred to any of them that they could not just choose not to be involved in these things, that they just got caught up in them because of forces that they simply could not choose to ignore or go against. As far as they were concerned, all they needed to do was say that they were no longer going to be involved, and they would simply not be involved anymore.

"Hear hear!" said Andrew, rising to his feet as well, but not feeling the need to add anything more to the discussion. But then, James and Zach had said it rather well, what more could he have said even if he had wanted to?

Jeremey though, did not seem to like this idea very much, as he was biting his lip in deep thought. "What if we're doing this for a reason guys?" he asked, glancing up at the others.

"Oh come off it Jer!" Zach said "You just fancy yourself the hero of the world, get over yourself, it's over … we're done!" Zach seemed quite adamant about this, and he was the one person in the group who was almost never argued with once he had made up his mind on something like this.

Jeremey sighed, but he too rose to his feet and muttered "Well, if that's it then that's it."

"We had a good run, but I don't want that crap, that's my dad's life, not mine." James said, before adding rather brightly "So, shall we swear on it?"

"Spit-shake?" Jeremey asked, and indeed he and Andrew had both spat into their hands before James was able to contradict them.

"No, I've got a better idea." James said, causing both Jeremey and Andrew to eye him with looks of the utmost annoyance as they wiped their hands dry on their jeans.

"What then?" Andrew asked, looking thoroughly annoyed that he had just spat on his hand for no reason whatsoever.

"Well, I think we should have something more important than a spit-shake for occasions such as these." James said, prompting looks of indignation from each of his fellow classmates. "You know, a special oath, just for us."

"Like what?" asked Zach, looking unconvinced.

James dangled his wrist in the middle of the gathered Dormmates, the golden band on his wrist catching the light perfectly as he did so, "Seems a good way to put these to use."

* * *

><p>They had all agreed that it was an excellent idea, but it had taken them some time to agree of a good way to work out the hand-motions, and the rules that surrounded the associated vow and its relation to spit-shakes and other kinds of promises swears and vows. Still, James did not complain, after all this was serious business to kids like them. There was nothing more important than making sure that everyone understood the rules that surrounded a promise.<p>

At last, when all the logistics had been worked out, the boys crossed their arms to make a grid, the glyphs morphing to form a roaring Gryffindor lion. As the lion that was formed between them roared audibly, the boys spoke their vow in succession. Because they were afraid that he still might refuse to participate, they made Jeremey swear first.

"I, Jeremey Matthew Hall, swear in the name of Godric Gryffindor that I will never again involve myself with the idiots that are the Magical History Movement."

"I, Andrew Christopher Knight, swear in the name of Godric Gryffindor that I will never again play hero for the Wizarding World."

"I, Zachary Alexander Tolentino, swear in the name of Godric Gryffindor that my days of abductions and firefights with the Magical History Movement are over!"

"I, James Sirius Potter, swear in the name of Godric Gryffindor that the Magical History Movement will no longer be any of my business."

They wished that there could have been some kind of explosion or sparks or something to mark the end of the vow, but instead the boys simply stood there with a defined sense of anticlimax as they each slowly withdrew their arms.

"Well that was impressive." droned a sarcastic voice behind them, and they all spun around in shock to realize that Albus had been sitting on the couch the entire time. In their obsession with making their own personal vow they had forgotten that he had been in the room with him to begin with, and now James felt slightly awkward at having left his brother out.

Albus though didn't seem to mind, as he was still leafing through a book that he must have gone to get midway through their discussion, which had admittedly taken a very long time. "No really, very incredible, I mean most people would have settled for just a spit-shake, but it's nice to see that your self esteem is so low that you needed to invent your own 'special' one to make yourselves feel better."

Albus seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself, whereas James currently wanted nothing more than to shut his brother up as soon as humanly possible, though Andrew seemed to have found Albus' comment to be funny for some odd reason.

"Careful Al," Zach warned, "or James might _accidentally_ knock you in front of the Hogwarts Express tomorrow morning.

"Accidentally?" James asked with a laugh, "I think we might just have to do him in now." he said, exchanging a glance with Jeremey, who nodded once and the two boys began walking towards Albus, whose head was once again buried in his book.

"Alright quick, you grab his arms, I've got his legs!" James exclaimed, and both boys seized Albus and hoisted him into the air amidst his violent protests. "What do you think you're playing at James?" he demanded fiercely as Andrew and Zach dissolved into fits of laughter.

Ignoring Albus' protests, James said "So, shall we toss him out the window then?" a question which was met with renewed laughter from the other two.

"Yes, that sounds like an excellent plan to me." Replied Jeremey, and it was Albus' turn to lose it now. "Come on guys, this isn't funny!" he complained, no longer sure whether or not James was just messing with him.

In the end, they had dangled Albus upside-down out the window by his ankles before finally relenting and letting him back inside, something which the younger boy did not appreciate.

"Let that be a lesson to you Albus," James said with a grin as Albus stormed off muttering about revenge, "Don't mess with the Golden Marauders!"

**Thanks to everyone for reading, next chapter we shall at last return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry so look for things to pick up quite a bit. **

**James and co. seem to be a mess of contradictions lately don't they? Not saying that means anything ... ^_^**

**Thanks to everyone for reading and following me, and please leave a REVIEW to let me know what you thought. :)**


	5. Chapter 5: A Strange Trip

Chapter Five: A Strange Trip

James and Jeremey had been very proud of their little prank, and had been very confident that they would be spending their first weeks back at Hogwarts telling everyone about how they had made Albus wet his pants. Unfortunately, as always, they had forgotten one very important detail. Albus may not have been a 'Golden Marauder', but he was indeed the grandson of James Potter I, and he was just as devious a prankster as James himself.

And so, much to their embarrassment, James and Jeremey had awoken the next morning with their hair charmed hot pink, and it would seem that Albus' wrath had extended to Zach and Andrew as well for their laughter at his expense, as their heads had not been spared either.

For the life of him, James could not imagine how Albus had managed a charm like that, but he hadn't paid much mind to those thoughts. His attention was more directed towards a single thought, and that was revenge!

Unfortunately though, it seemed that revenge was going to have to wait. Albus had barely taken the time to snicker at them and ask whether they had developed the ability to metamorph before scarpering downstairs to the relative safety of the kitchen, where Andrew's parents were waiting as unwitting witnesses to any attack against him.

"I can't get it to come out!" exclaimed a panicked Jeremey, who had spent the last fifteen minutes whilst Andrew and Zach were grumbling about how unfair it was that Albus had charmed _their_ hair as well trying to wash the pink out of his hair as though it were dye. Despite the situation, James could not help but grin at his friend's plight. They often joked that Jeremey had a love affair with his hair, and they were honestly not that far off. Jeremey seemed to never tire of making sure that his hair was as messy as humanly possible, so much so that there were times when his hair made James' almost look tidy by comparison.

And, while it did not disrupt his ability to make his hair look like he had just rolled out of bed moments before, there was little doubt that having pink hair did not fit into Jeremey's plans at all.

"Way I reckon it Al did you a favor." James told him with a grin, "Now people will be able to see your hair from miles away, you won't even have to brag about it." a thought which only worsened Jeremey's state of dread. Once the initial shock had worn off, James had not been too miffed about this. He knew that Andrew's parents would fix their hair the moment that they saw them, and he had to admit that it was rather funny.

"What I don't understand." Andrew said, "Is how Albus managed to charm our hair in the first place." Looking at the rest of them as though they were stupid for not having realized this before, he added "I mean, we're not allowed to use magic outside of school." Though the question was asked aloud he may as well have directed it solely towards Zach, as no one else was going to be of any help with something like this.

Zach knew this full well, so before any of the others had enough time to so much as shrug, he replied "Gimme a minute, I'm thinking." He was quite a sight to see indeed with creases wrinkled across his forehead, made even more prominent than usual by the bright tuft of hair that rested atop it.

"If I remember correctly," Zach said a moment later, with much less conviction than any of them would have liked, "It's more difficult for the Ministry of Magic to ascertain who cast the spell when you're surrounded by other Witches and Wizards, namely Andrew's parents." Under ordinary circumstances, they would have accepted this without second thought, but the way that Zach had sounded uncertain – something that did not happen very often – was giving them pause.

"You reckon Al would've known that?" Jeremey asked, now desperately looking at a comb that he had found as though wondering what it was used for and whether or not it could fix his hair. Of course, seeing as he was holding it upside down, it would not have helped him with much of anything, but that was besides the point.

* * *

><p>Some time later, after finally getting dressed, they eventually made their way downstairs where Al was sitting at the table with his back to them. He was talking excitedly to Julie and Julian in a hushed voice, but the moment that they entered Julie flashed him a look and he glanced at them over his shoulder.<p>

"Nice hair guys." Julie remarked with a smirk, "Especially you Andy, it really helps bring out your … feminine side." The three sitting at the table dissolved into fits of laughter as Andrew's parents came walking into the kitchen, completely ignoring the copy of The Daily Prophet that was being held loosely by Mr. Knight and talking with apparent disinterest about something.

"Yes you know that very important thing that's written here …" Mr. Knight muttered, causing James to wonder whether they had really been looking at the newspaper at all, or if they had just been carrying it to hide their true purpose for entering the kitchen. And indeed, it would seem that Al had let them in on his little joke, as neither of them seemed even remotely surprised to see the four pink haired boys.

"Ah, morning Andrew." Mr. Knight said briskly, a slight smirk on his face, "I expect you're all very excited about your first day back at Hogwarts."

"Well of course they are." Mrs. Knight said, looking as though she were forcing herself not to explode. "I mean, all of their nice little friends they haven't seen in so long, probably all been wondering what they've been up to."

James scowled and shot Albus a look of the utmost contempt. Why was it that whenever he tried to pull a prank he got into trouble, but when Albus did something the grown-ups just got right on board with it? It wasn't fair!

Mr. and Mrs. Knight seemed to want to have a few more hours to laugh at their hair, because they did not offer to fix it, and the Gryffindors most certainly were not going to ask for their help, so James supposed that they were just going to have to wait. Still, once or twice whilst listening to Albus and Julie snigger and ask him whether he thought people would mistake him for Teddy Lupin and suddenly start paying more attention to him, he sincerely wished that he could have just asked.

* * *

><p>After breakfast, the boys went upstairs to pack their things, and James finally asked Albus the question that had been nagging at him the whole morning as the other boy was stuffing socks randomly into his trunk. Albus may have looked the part of the responsible studious boy, but when it came down to it he was just as lazy as James.<p>

"How'd you do it Al?" James asked, thinking to himself that despite all of his mischief making experience he had no knowledge of a spell like that. And even if he did know of such a spell, he didn't think that he'd be able to transfigure part of a person … that was very advanced magic!

Albus merely flashed him a grin though and replied "I don't know what you're talking about James, _I_ most certainly did not charm your hair." a response that, as much as it infuriated James, filled him with a great amount of pride that his younger brother was finally starting to learn how to be a respectable prankster. Still, he could not help but wish that Albus had chosen to exercise his natural gifts on someone else.

"Yea I get it Al!" James said dismissively, and with some annoyance, "I know I always told you never to admit anything, but this doesn't count, just tell me how you did it and I promise I won't try to get revenge or anything."

Albus seemed quite surprised by this offer, and it was clear that he had been very nervous at the prospect of James exacting revenge on him of some sort. But rather than answer James' question, he responded with a bit of a grin "Do you realize how heavy of a sleeper you are James?"

Despite the fact that Albus was clearly just trying to change the subject, James snorted and said with absolute confidence "I am not!" and was immediately met by a loud laugh, not from Albus, but from behind him. Jeremey had just entered the room, apparently the others were done packing as Andrew and Zach followed behind just a moment later and said "Yea, it's true James, you'd sleep through anything."

Ignoring the fact that the trio behind him would probably know much better than him, James maintained quite angrily "I am not!" though he was distinctly reminded of a time when he and Albus had shared a room long ago that Albus had stripped him of his clothes and dressed him in Lily's frilliest nightgown while he had still slept on. What was even more impressive about that feat was that the thing was so small that it had barely fit over James' body, yet Al had somehow managed it.

"If you're not," Albus replied with a sly grin, "Then how on earth have I been sneaking into your Dorm all year and nicking the Marauder's Map from your trunk whenever I wanted it?" the moment that the words were out of Albus' mouth however, it was clear that he regretted them, as his eyes grew wide with horror and he looked away quickly.

From the complete silence behind him, James knew that not even Jeremey could think of something funny to say. They were all too busy preparing their eulogies for Albus' funeral.

"Do you mean to tell me," James began, his voice extremely slow and measured, "That you have been stealing my most prized possession and using it for your own twisted purposes?"

Albus looked like he was about to faint, but he nodded slowly. When James began walking very slowly towards him, Albus looked like he wanted to just melt into the floor and cease to exist. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that something very bad was about to happen to Albus.

But to the shock of everyone, perhaps no one more than Albus, James did something that most were confident had never happened in recent memory; he gave his brother a hug! And while everyone else, including Albus, was still reeling in shock, he declared "I'm so proud! At last you've gotten your head screwed on straight!"

Jeremey was the first to respond "What?" he demanded angrily, "You told me that if I ever took that map without your permission you'd kill me!"

James nodded sagely and said "That I did, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and if a few midnight excursions with my map were what it took to save him from turning into Aunt Hermione then I'll live with it."

As he backed away from his brother he added, "Though from this point forward if you _ever_ take anything of mine again I will curse you from here to Tokyo!"

Albus, who was still looking as though Professor McGonagall had declared a 'No Homework Day', mumbled "Do you even know where Tokyo is?" though not with quite the same force he had a few minutes ago.

Looking at him oddly, James took one fast step forward, to which Albus retreated hastily until his back hit the wall, which caused James to grin. "You need to man up Albus." He said as though he were teaching a class, something that James Potter would most certainly never do. "You've got potential, but you just lose your nerve when someone challenges you."

Slamming the lid of his trunk shut, he said to the others, who were somewhere between shocked and amused "Come on, let's go get our hair fixed."

This seemed a much better alternative to them than trying to understand the workings of James and Albus' heads, and so they all nodded eagerly and raced out of the room before James could do something else to cause the fabric of the universe to unwind itself.

James turned to follow them, but just before he left he said "By the way Albus, I know that you're supposed to be the smart one but even _I_ know that Tokyo is in China." and, pausing only to give Albus a derisive laugh, he strode out of the room after his friends.

* * *

><p>As expected, it had taken only a few minutes of annoyance before Andrew's parents had agreed to fix their hair, though they had made a real show out of Andrew's. They had successfully made three or four incorrect changes to their son's hair before stating that they had no idea what was wrong with it, and they would just have to leave it that way without any of them suspecting anything.<p>

Eventually though, after a near nervous breakdown by Andrew, everyone's hair was back in order, and they were ready to head for King's Cross Station. Of course, with six of them all trying to get their stuff together and get the last laugh on one another, this was hard to accomplish. Eventually, Mr. and Mrs. Knight had to follow them throughout the house as they got their stuff in order to make sure they got out of the house without any casualties.

Julian, naturally, was not too happy about being left behind yet again, the nine year old still having two years to go before his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft of Wizardry. Unlike Lily though, he was neither weepy nor whiney, though he did look equally depressed by the prospect of being left behind yet again by his elder siblings.

Albus seemed to be thinking along similar lines, as he was even helping Julie try to cheer Julian up. "If they're not writing you enough," Albus promised, "you can write to me." a prospect which James found quite amusing to say the very least. Albus barely even took the time to write their parents the year before, something which James would have thought unthinkable! And here he was promising to exchange letters with _Julian Knight_, a boy with whom James was confident they had never exchanged more than two words in their entire life.

Julian however didn't seem to find anything unlikely about this promise, as he gave Albus an even tighter hug than he had to his siblings before the older boy pushed his trolley ahead to catch up with James. Laughing at the incredulous look on James' face, Albus muttered "He's got two siblings to write to him, and besides I've got enough dirt on Julie to last two lifetimes, so if Julian pesters me I can just blackmail her into writing him."

James looked at his brother in amazement, wondering where this level of trickery had come from. Sure, Albus was always one to go for a good prank, but he had never been the kind of devious mastermind that James himself was. "Merlin's pants!" James muttered, "Are you channeling granddad's spirit or something?"

Peering at Albus, which was rather hard to do whilst still steering his trolley straight, James poked his brother and said "Grandpa James? Are you in there?" This was not the most difficult thing for James to believe, after all he had briefly encountered his grandfather's spirit when the Resurrection Stone had been destroyed, temporarily rupturing the barrier between the worlds of the dead and the living. Maybe something like that was happening again.

"Shove off you moron!" Albus replied, pushing James away and nearly causing both of them to crash their trolleys into the barrier ahead. Their antics were starting to attract attention, but neither of the boys noticed this.

"Well then tell me what's up." James demanded, still not completely willing to throw his theory out the window, "This isn't you Albus, and as much as I like the change it's rather surprising." James had spent most of his life trying to get Albus to be more like him, and now that it had actually happened he was rather frightened of the results. This wasn't his brother, or more accurately this was not how Albus had acted in more than a year!

"Maybe I've been spending too much time with you lot than I should be." Albus said, this time resisting the temptation to hit James again. "Relax James, isn't that what you always tell me?"

James tried to calm down, but there was still something nagging him. Thankfully, Albus knew well enough how to read him by now. "Last year was weird James," Albus said, as though he had read James' mind, his voice somewhat lower now, "I spent the whole year thinking that you were some kind of action hero like dad." James scoffed at the very idea of this, but Albus cut him off and continued, "But you know what, now that I've done it too, we didn't really do _anything_ did we?"

"I wouldn't say that." James said rather slowly, loathe to admit that he hadn't really done anything that heroic, it really had all just been luck and timing that had gotten them through. Still, he had to admit that Albus had a point, and he finally realized why Albus had seemed so withdrawn for most of the last year. To him, James must have seemed like yet another family member in whose shadow he would have to labor.

"Well, I'm glad that you've accepted that I'll always be cooler than you." James said with a grin, "But don't worry, being the second coolest Potter still makes you like the third or fourth coolest person in the entire school."

Albus looked at James with a raised eyebrow and James said with a smirk "Well, there's Hagrid, and Fred, and Andy, and Zach, hell I guess even Jeremey might be a little cooler than you … that's gotta be tough ranking lower than him." When he wanted to be, James could be such a horrible friend, "And … I think that's it, so yea you're still pretty up there."

By this time, Albus seemed to have regained the ability of speech, and shot back "Yea right! Everyone thinks that you're so full of hot air they wouldn't get within twenty feet of you for fear and getting crushed underneath your gigantically inflated head!"

By this time, they had reached the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten, and Jeremey and Andrew had already taken to trying to ram the other off course as they raced towards the wall, but Albus continued on. "Now me on the other hand, humble but oh so clever and oh so chill Albus Potter, they're just lining up to spend time with me."

"I knew it was all an act." James grumbled to himself as Jeremey and Andrew barely managed to squeeze through the barrier at the same time without killing each other. As Zach took off after them, James turned to Albus and said "And who in their right mind would ever think that you're 'chill'? Who even says 'chill'?"

"I do, you got a problem with that?" Albus asked, darting towards the barrier, but James was already running too.

"Yea, I do!" James replied, slamming his trolley into Albus' to try and knock him off course. He was not really sure where he had gotten this idea from, but he had suggested it to Andrew that morning and the other boy had been all for it. Still, Andrew had already gone through, so Albus seemed like a good enough target … wait erm, opponent. Yes, that was what he meant.

"Well I suppose you are the expert in getting people to like you." Albus sarcastically replied with a devilish smirk, "After all, what with your smooth moves you've practically got Erin eating out of the palm of your hand don't you?"

The shock of this comment was enough to completely freeze James in his tracks as Albus raced through the barrier with a look of victory on his face. After the momentary shock had worn off, James followed his brother through the barrier, desperately trying to figure out who had gone and ratted on him to Albus. It wasn't like there were many suspects; there were only four to be exact.

Trying the direct approach first, James caught up to his brother, who was looking at him very smugly indeed, and demanded "Who told you about that?" thinking that it was probably Jeremey, that would be just like him too! He could eliminate his dad as a suspect, his dad would never betray his trust like that!

Albus snorted with laughter at James' comment and replied "You did Jamie." a name which these days Albus used only when he was deliberately trying to tick James off even more than usual.

"What are you talking about? I did not!" James said, not in the mood for one of his own games at the moment. Merlin, he had forgotten over the past two years just how much Albus could be like him when he wanted to be. He would have to back off if he ever wanted Albus to calm down again.

"Well, not directly you didn't." Albus mused, "But I was there that day at the lake remember? And let me tell you, you didn't look away from her _once!"_ Albus seemed to find this to be very amusing, and when James opened his mouth to protest, Albus waved him off and said "James don't even bother, I'm your brother and you're not exactly making this hard to figure out. See! Your ears are going all red like they always do when you're embarrassed."

Sure enough, the tips of James' ears were once again turning traitor against him. Apparently his Uncle Ron always used to do that too, but James dared not ask his mother for confirmation lest he give her another way to tell when he was lying to her.

Noticing that James was grumbling unhappily about this, Albus said "Oh calm down James, I won't tell anyone about your little _girlfriend_; and besides look on the bright side, we can finally start the year without having to be embarrassed by …"

But as though Albus' words had been heard by the wisps of fate, a delighted screech pierced the Platform at that very moment. A screech which the boys recognized only too well as the very last voice that they wanted to hear at the moment, and caused them both to slump in frustrated embarrassment onto the tops of their trolleys.

"JAMIE! ALBUS!"

"Oh no …" James groaned, wishing that he could just melt into the floor before any of his friends saw what was about to happen.

"They didn't!" Albus groaned almost at the same time, glancing desperately all around for some kind of escape route.

"This is your fault!" James muttered angrily.

"How is it my fault?" snapped Albus.

"You just _had_ to say it!" James muttered tersely as Lily Potter came bursting through the crowd and wrapped up both of her brothers in one big hug, an impressive feat considering their relative sizes. Neither James nor Albus were particularly big for their age, quite the opposite in fact, but Lily was a downright pixie by comparison!

"Hey Lils." James muttered awkwardly, desperately looking around to make sure that none of his classmates could see this. Unfortunately the crowd was so thick that it was impossible to tell who was looking and who was not.

"I guess you missed us." Albus added thickly, as both brothers began the long and difficult process of extricating themselves from their sister's grip. Maybe if they were fast enough they could escape …

"Ah, there they are." Came another familiar voice, causing James' heart to sink into the soles of his shoes. As if this wasn't enough, now his parents were coming to say goodbye too. Ugh, if she had been bad last year that was nothing compared to what she would do after not having seen them in a solid week. Why had they even come in the first place? They had already said their goodbyes!

"Dad, mum." James muttered weakly as Albus gave a feeble wave beside him.

Amazingly though, their parents seemed to hold it together quite well, and their mother only asked for one excruciatingly long hug this time before letting them go. Even more remarkably to James, Lily didn't even start crying about how much she wanted to go to Hogwarts too. It was as though the universe was suddenly out of tilt.

Then again, maybe they were just getting used to it by now. So accustomed to his absence that they didn't even miss him anymore! As they stowed their luggage in the train, James snuck a look over at Albus and it was clear that he was thinking the same thing.

"Should we?" James asked simply.

"I think we have to." Albus muttered solemnly.

And so, making sure that they were not seen, the boys ran back to give their mum one more hug before getting on the train … just to be safe. They even let their dad give them a hug too, and then they had to hug Lily, but only because she would've cried if they hadn't and most definitely not because they had wanted to!

* * *

><p>At long last, they were aboard the Hogwarts Express, tumbling aboard the train less than a minute before it was scheduled to depart. Somehow they had managed to still wind up barely making it aboard the train despite having gotten there fifteen minutes early!<p>

"You know what I just realized?" Albus muttered as the train started to pull out of the station.

"That you'll never be half as cool as me and you may as well give up?" James wagered, earning him a punch from Albus that escalated into a wrestling match that lasted all of twelve seconds before they were stopped by a shrill voice from behind them "What on earth do you think that you're doing?"

James and Albus both froze instantly, which resulted in a rather humorous situation involving Albus' head coming to rest two inches from the shoe of the person who, as much as they wished otherwise, they knew only too well. The voice belonged to their least favorite cousin, and fifth year, Molly Weasley.

Much to his delight, James had been able to avoid Molly almost entirely during his first two years at Hogwarts School partially because Molly had inexplicably been sorted into Hufflepuff House. Well, when you considered just how boring of an immediate family she had, perhaps it was not too surprising, but she was _still_ a Weasley, and everyone knew that the Weasleys – along with the Potters – were the coolest people on the face of the planet!

This conversation, though it was only nine words in length, was already the longest that James had suffered through with his cousin during his time at Hogwarts, and in the opinion of both Potter boys, it had already gone on for far too long. Glancing at each other with a look of the utmost annoyance with their boring cousin, the boys rose to their feet rather slowly.

Molly Weasley looked very much like an older version of their much more interesting cousin Rose, and the physical resemblance was one of the many reasons that James and Albus had been so alarmed when Rose had began acting very Molly-ish the year before. It was like she had been transforming right before their eyes!

Admittedly, Molly's hair was much more held-together than Rose's disparate mop, and her face was much more narrow and pointed. Still though, the resemblance between the two cousins was quite striking as far as James was concerned.

"Hey Molly." James said rather slowly, knowing that this conversation was not going to go over too well. Molly generally disapproved of anything that was even remotely fun, and therefore did not think very highly of James and Albus, both of whom were extremely fun people to be around.

Albus opened his mouth to mutter something as well, but Molly was already speaking … and as a general rule it was best not to try and interrupt Molly unless you wanted to have to deal with a very long rant about manners. "You two are unbelievable, you know that?" she demanded, looking at them as though absolutely disgusted with them.

"Jeez Molly, one would think you'd never seen siblings going at it." Albus protested, while Molly was never the type to get into arguments like this she was certainly no stranger to them having grown up around many many pairs of feuding siblings.

"I'm not even talking about this." Molly said dismissively, "Though I could point out the utter stupidity of this too if I wanted to. Causing a ruckus on the train, utterly embarrassing yourselves …"

"Well, glad you're not talking about that then." James interrupted sarcastically, "So can we get to the point soon, or are we gonna have to put off the end of this little chat until June?" James was eager to get out of here and find his friends as soon as possible, and Molly was looking like she was in the mood to go on for hours!

"You'd better watch yourself this year James," Molly said, drawing herself up importantly, "You too Albus, if you know what's good for you. You may have had a free reign for the last two years, but you're not going to be fooling anyone anymore." James didn't have the slightest idea what she was talking about, but then he saw something very small and shiny on the front of her shirt.

James and Albus both groaned in frustration, "Oh Molly," James muttered, "You didn't." sounding as though he wanted to vomit, a fact which was not lost on Molly.

"I most certainly did," Molly replied proudly, fingering the Prefect Badge on her chest proudly, "And I don't know why you make it out to be such a bad thing, it's an important responsibility."

James made a gagging sound, and Albus gave Molly a look of the utmost disdain. There was nothing worse than being made a Prefect, that kind of responsibility just sucked all of the fun right out of life!

"Oh shove it James!" Molly glowered, "I should have known that _you_ would act like this, but I thought much more of _you_ Albus." Shaking her head, sadly she said "You acted like such a good student last year, for a moment I thought that a year away from James had done you some good … helped you straighten out your priorities."

Of all the things that she could have said to Albus, it was clear that he found this the most offensive. No longer joking, Albus glared at Molly with a look of the greatest anger and said "Let's get one thing straight Molly. I might get good marks, but I'm _not_ a teacher's pet and I'm _NOT_ going to be a Prefect!"

James looked as though Christmas had come early, whilst Molly was wearing an expression of great frustration. However, she seemed to realize that she was not going to make any headway here, so she immediately changed pace and asked "Where were you last night?"

This seemed like an odd question to both James and Albus, who exchanged looks of confusion before James replied "What's it to you Molly, or do we have to answer to you now just because you're a Prefect?" James knew that Molly could be annoying at times, but even by her standards this was bad.

"What's it to me?" Molly asked nasally, "Nothing at all, but I can name two other people to whom it mattered a great deal." And before either brother could reply with a sarcastic comment, she said very slowly "Louis, and Lucy. I'd have thought that you might have remembered _them_."

James sighed as Albus groaned aloud; the truth was they had completely forgotten about that. Their cousins, Louis and Lucy, were starting Hogwarts this year, and as always their Grandma Molly must have had a sending off party for the new students.

With a look of the utmost shock on her face, Molly said "What's this, have the great Potter brothers finally realized that there are other people in the world besides themselves whose feelings they should take into account?" As boring as Molly was, she was still a Weasley, and sarcasm was ingrained very deeply into her DNA.

In all fairness, Lucy had probably barely noticed the absence of her cousins, she was extremely distant and cold towards many of her cousins and James usually avoided her at all costs. Albus gave her a bit more time, but he too was not altogether fond of her. Louis on the other hand, they legitimately felt bad for. He was their Uncle Bill's youngest child, and he was actually rather fun to be around when he shut up about clothes and Muggles – which unfortunately were his two favorite topics of conversation.

Neither of them could think of anything to say, and after a very noticeable silence, Molly spoke again. "Try to remember that next time you're planning on being a pair of insensitive pigs. And do try and stay out of trouble this year, because I would hate to be the one to have to get you both into huge trouble." And with a look that suggested to James that she would in fact love nothing more than to get them both into major trouble, Molly shoved past them and walked down the corridor of the train towards the Prefect's Compartment.

A few moments passed before Albus said "Well, I'll be damned, Molly was actually right about something for once." a statement which James was fairly sure no one had ever said before in the history of intelligent conversation.

"I'm sorry," James said, cleaning out his ears theatrically, "I must have missed that, because you can't have said what I think I just heard."

Albus rolled his eyes at him and said "Well, we kind of are insensitive." Biting his lip, Albus commented "I mean, we didn't even thank Andrew's parents for letting us stay there all week!"

James did not have a reply to this, that was really a pretty low thing to do, but it wasn't like they hadn't been very busy in those last hectic few minutes.

"That's what I'd just realized before …" Albus trailed off before muttering, "Well, before Molly showed up." choosing to blame the interruption solely on Molly, rather than their argument which had been mostly a joke anyway.

A noticeable silence followed this, both brothers wondering whether Molly was right and they were in fact a pair of insensitive brats who thought only of themselves. If that was the case, James wasn't sure which thought disturbed him more: the fact that they were indeed such horrible people, or that Molly had actually been right about something.

At last though, James shrugged and said "Let's go find the others." an idea which seemed to relieve Albus a great deal as he nodded and followed James.

* * *

><p>By the time James finally found his friends, he had been walking on his own for quite some time. Albus had seen Scorpius, Rose, Fred, Julie, and a number of other kids in his year whom James had not recognized and so the two boys had parted ways. "Albus! You're alive!" came an enthusiastic shout from a boy who was definitely either Darren Shindler or Luke Grant as he entered, but James was not sure which boy it was.<p>

It was not that the boys looked alike, quite the opposite in fact, but James had just never gotten to know any of Albus' friends very well. Considering how well Albus had gotten to know all of James' friends, this was a bit of a lame move on James' part, and he supposed that he would have to make the effort this year to change that, but he had never found Albus' friends that interesting.

At last though, he had found his dormmates again, sharing a compartment near the back of the train with virtually an identical crowd to the one which had been present during James' first trip to Hogwarts. Absent only were Leon Bartlett and Nicolette Evermore, neither of whom James had spoken with in some time and a pair of Gryffindor girls: Elizabeth Robinson and Alisha Norman, who James barely saw anymore anyway. In fact, he had not spoken once to the Russian girl since that train ride from London; whereas Leon had earned some enmity from James since the events of their previous year at Hogwarts.

"Hey guys." James greeted with a wave as he slid the compartment door shut behind him, "I'm here now, so we can start the party." He joked, noting that the compartment had seemed unusually quiet as he entered.

"Ah, now that's a shame mate." Jason Malloy replied with a smirk, "I'm afraid we've all partied ourselves out already." James grinned back and the boys high-fived across the compartment as everyone began laughing.

The conversations took the usual turns, everyone checked in on the summers of those whom they had not seen, which meant a lot of talking for Christian Kennedy who lived in Boston, Massachusetts and of course for Jeremey who lived in Montreal. Everyone else had seen at least a bit of each other over the summer, though James had to admit that he had certainly not seen Dwayne Powelly over the summer. Then again, he could not remember a time when he had ever hung out with Dwayne unless Christian was there too. Dwayne was just not nearly as interesting as his American best friend.

Of course, Quidditch came up soon enough, as it always did for that group of students. With the exception of Erin and Andrew, everyone in that compartment played for their House Teams, and in the case of those two exceptions it was not for lack of trying. Erin had tried out for Seeker in her first year, not knowing that Justin Shindler was one of the best Seekers that Ravenclaw House had ever seen, and was sent home before she had even had a chance to mount her broomstick. She had tried out for Chaser last year, but Aiden Walker had beaten her out.

Andrew on the other hand had been consistent, trying out for Beater each of the last two years, but coming up short both times. However, both students were confident in their chances this year. Of course what kind of friends would the rest of them have been if they had not delighted in shattering those bubbles of confidence?

"Well, Erin should have no problem making the team." James said, being sure to catch Erin's eye as he said so. Teddy had told him in private that compliments were key to getting girls to like you, and James had decided to give it a try with Erin. "But Andy doesn't have a chance."

Of course, Jason would not stand for anyone complimenting his sister in his presence, and he immediately interrupted "I dunno James, Erin's just not a natural Chaser. I don't think she' got the gut instinct needed."

Five minutes later Erin had successfully managed to twist Jason's arm behind his back and, the rest of them laughed as Jason admitted – though shouts of pain – that Erin had as good a chance at making the team as anyone.

"Dude, you just got _owned_ by a girl!" Christian pointed out through fits of laughter, laughter which quickly subsided as Erin glared angrily at him. She might have been the only girl in the compartment, but she had proven many a time before that she was probably one of the toughest people there.

"Hey Christian, staring contest GO!" Jeremey shouted, a statement the likes of which carried them all the way back to Hogwarts. The Third Years were a lot of things, but complex was most certainly not one of them.

**A big thanks to everyone, and with this chapter comes a lot of information that I need to pass along to you guys about what's going on, because there's a lot of new and exciting stuff going on with the "James Potter Series" that I need to fill you guys in on! :)**

**As many of you know by now from my incessant whining about how much I hate it, the writing in James Potter and the Continuous Legacy as it was originally posted is far from the kind of standards to which I usually hold my work since it was written more than two years before it was actually uploaded. So I have decided to undertake the project of rewriting the first book to my current standards, and may eventually do the same with Bloodline of Kings once this one is done. I will continue to update James Potter and the Alchemist's Curse at the same time though, so worry not the new stuff is still coming.**

**But even if you have read James Potter and the Continuous Legacy, you may want to stop by and take a glance. There are numerous subplots and intricacies that never got fully flushed out in the original version, so there is still plenty of new things to look for in this revision, even if the central plot is already known to you who have read it. And for those who have not, try not to spoil it by looking at the original, because you'll enjoy it so much more if you read this new version. It's really immeasurably better than the original and can be found on my Author Page! :)**

****I am very nervous about this but I'm going to go for it and give you guys a schedule in the hopes that I can stick to it**. **Every Monday I will post the next revised Chapter of James Potter and the Continuous Legacy, and every Friday I will post an all new Chapter for James Potter and the Alchemist's Curse. Thanks to everyone who has been following me for so long, and to those who are just stumbling upon me now too. Don't forget to click those buttons and REVIEW and FOLLOW!  
><strong>**

**Also, one of my friends gave me the idea of creating a Twitter Feed to give updates and info on what's going on with the writing of the series. Little insights and commentary into what is going on with the writing, uploading, and hashing out of the series. I don't know how well this will work and whether or not anyone will like the idea, but I've decided to go with it on a trial basis to see if people like it. If they do, I will continue, if not then I'll scrap that idea and just continue with the writing as I did before, but I think it would be a fun idea if people were into it.**

**So if anyone is on Twitter, or likes this idea and would like to make a Twitter to follow what's going on with the series, you should follow me on Twitter at 'TheJamesSPotter'**

**Hopefully this will work out and make this more enjoyable for everyone, if you guys like this idea or don't like it or have any thoughts whatsoever let me know in Reviews or PMs. In the end, this is all about you guys, the readers, and this is my attempt to make it cooler for you guys so please give me some feedback. :)**


	6. Chapter 6: Family Ties

Chapter Six: Family Ties

It seemed as though someone had enchanted the Hogwarts Express to travel ten times faster than it had last June, as they were back at Hogwarts almost before James had even noticed that they had been traveling. But from the darkened sky out their window, James could see that night had indeed fallen, so he supposed that he must have missed the passage of time somehow.

The group exited the Hogwarts Express, still joking loudly as they made their way towards the carriages that would take them up to the Castle. As they left the train, James saw a number of familiar faces, including his cousin Louis, whom he gave a comforting smile as the younger boy made his way towards Hagrid who was loudly calling "Firs' Years over here!"

Louis Weasley was a good kid, but he had a lot of confidence issues to work out if he was ever going to have any fun in life, as even James could see. James supposed that it wasn't really Louis' fault, growing up with a Half Veela for a mother and two Part Veelas as sisters had to be tough, and his own Veela-like qualities had to only add to his uncertainties.

James didn't know what to expect from Louis, his oldest sister Victoire had been a Gryffindor, and a fiery one at that, but Dominique was a textbook Ravenclaw. If he had to wager a guess, James would have pegged the boy as a Hufflepuff, but he supposed that he would find out soon enough.

But James could not spare much time talking to his cousin, Jason had started an impromptu game of 'Hit Wizard', which commanded far too much importance for him to allow himself to be distracted by something as simple as making his cousin feel better.

'Hit Wizard' was a simple enough game, which involved a single person, the 'Hit Wizard', attempting to track down a larger number of people, his 'targets', in a large crowd. Dwayne Powelly had been giving the unenviable task of being the 'Hit Wizard', leaving the rest of them with only one goal in mind: get to the Great Hall without being caught by Dwayne.

"Hey James, have a good summer?" came a voice which would have made James jump had it not been too obviously feminine to belong to Dwayne. Besides, he recognized it immediately as belonging to Elizabeth Robinson, a Gryffindor in his year with whom he had maintained a cordial relationship if nothing else. Beside her, also smiling brightly, was Alishia Norman who was also in their year.

"Alright I suppose," James replied, still glancing over his shoulder looking for any sign of the Hufflepuff boy. Dwayne was a fair sight taller than James, but he would still blend in quite nicely to a crowd like this.

"You alright James?" Alishia asked, looking at him strangely, "You seem odd, well odd for you I mean." It was true that neither of the pair were on particularly close terms with James, but they had seen plenty of him over the last two years, and knew full well what he was like normally. And of course, James was certain that they had heard plenty of stories about what had happened in the Forbidden Forest last year, no doubt people thought he might have suffered some kind of trauma.

"Yea, fine." James said, still rather distracted, but grinning earnestly to show that he was totally fine. "I'm just hiding from Dwayne so if you see him could you send him off that way?" he asked, pointing towards the rear of the train amidst looks of astonished confusion from the two Gryffindor girls. Realizing how strange of a request this must have sounded like, James explained "We're playing 'Hit Wizard'."

Elizabeth shook her head at him with a faint grin on her face, but Alishia looked absolutely baffled. "Boys." Elizabeth muttered to herself, before noticing her friend's confusion and saying "Oh you're hopeless, I'll tell you later." James agreed that Alishia was truly a lost cause if she had never even heard of 'Hit Wizard', it wasn't even like she was Muggle Born, she had grown up in a magical family just like James and Elizabeth!

Looking at James with an amused look on her face, Elizabeth waved him off and said "Go, knowing you lot I don't want to be responsible for you having to suffer whatever the consequences for the losers are." and James, not needing to be told twice, immediately bolted towards the path where the horseless carriages waited.

It occurred to him, however, that they should have put some kind of stakes on the game as Elizabeth had expected they had. The game would have been a lot more fun if the losers had to go running through the Charm's Corridor the next day stark naked or some other kind of humiliation like that.

But then, James supposed that if they had included stakes such as that he probably would have snuck onto the First Year boats to avoid detection. And as much as that would have ensured his safety, there wasn't very much fun in that.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes of ducking, sneaking, and backtracking later James had finally reached the path where the horseless carriages congregated. Of course, they were not actually horseless as they were in fact pulled by creatures called thestrals, but of course they were invisible to the naked eye.<p>

James' plan was to stalk out the wooded area around the path and hop onto a leaving carriage so that Dwayne couldn't catch him while he waited around to hop on one of them. That had been his plan at least, until something happened which left him utterly baffled, he could see the thestrals.

Not clearly though, for some reason it seemed as though he was seeing them through some kind of foggy glass, yet he could still see that his father had not been exaggerating when he described them. Truly frightening creatures they were, appearing as though the flesh was ready to slide off of their bones. His dad had always said that they were alright, hell he had even ridden one, but James was not so sure about these hellish creatures.

James was still staring at the creatures in shock and confusion when he heard a scuffling noise behind him, he was about to dive behind a tree when he noticed that it was a pair of figures rushing towards him, and so he remained put. Dwayne would be alone, and so there was no need to hide from whoever was coming.

Indeed, just moments later, Jeremey and Andrew came rushing into the small clearing where James was waiting, evidently having come up with the same plan themselves. Andrew, it seemed, was not happy to see James.

"Ugh, three is too many!" he groaned the second he saw James, "We're so gonna get caught now!" a prospect which was clearly unacceptable to him.

"Relax Andy," Jeremey said, "All we gotta do is get into one of those carriages before Dwayne gets here and we're home free." Taking a moment to catch his breath, Jeremey explained to James, "We just saw Dwayne over by the train. I think he managed to corner Zach … actually, might have been Christian."

James didn't see how Jeremey could get the two confused, but he let the matter slide. In a game like 'Hit Wizard' it was easy to lose track of who was running where. All that mattered was that they had a small window to get out of there before Dwayne could catch up to them.

Rushing out onto the path, James cut in front of a line of Ravenclaws, who shot him venomous looks, and hopped into the nearest carriage with Jeremey and Andrew just as it began to pull out. "Did you notice?" he asked them, ignoring the other students in the carriage in his haste to find out what the others had thought.

"Notice what?" Andrew asked, both of them giving James very confused looks. It was clear that they either had not noticed the thestrals or were not paying them nearly as much mind as James was. Nevertheless, he pressed on in the hopes of some kind of information about what was going on.

"You know, the thestrals." James said, adding in explanation "They're visible all of a sudden."

This clearly made no sense to either of them, as their looks of confusion only got worse at James' explanation. "The what?" James asked, as Andrew maintained quite earnestly "No they're not!" which, amusingly enough, was exactly what James should have expected from the two of them.

"I saw them too." Said a quiet voice from next to them, and James finally noticed who the other people in their compartment were.

The only other people with them were James' cousins Rose and Fred, and Rose had curled her knees up to her chest in evident distress. Fred appeared to be doing his best to comfort her, as his hand was resting on her shoulder, but it was clear that he was at a loss for how to help in a situation like this.

Rose was clearly far more shaken by the sight of the beasts than James had been, her voice seemed quite shaky when she continued "I noticed them on the last day of Term too, they're omens James, they appear only to those who have seen death, but they'll only truly reveal themselves when you've accepted what you've seen."

James had not heard that part of the tale, but he trusted Rose more than anyone when it came to matters such as these, so he pushed her further as his dormmates looked on spellbound.

Moving closer to his cousin, James joined Fred in holding Rose up as he asked "What do you mean Rose?"

"They don't look solid to you do they?" was her quiet reply.

James was rather thrown by this, "No, they're almost like ghosts." He replied, his voice barely more than a whisper now.

"Al saw them too." Rose mumbled, not looking at James, "But they looked fine to him. It's because _he_ understands something we don't, he's figured it out James. He understands it, and we don't … and I don't!"

And now at last, James understood why Rose was so upset, it was not because of the thestrals, she wasn't scared at all … she was ashamed of herself. She thought that not being able to see the thestrals clearly made her weak, or inferior.

Indeed, no sooner had this realization entered James' mind, than Rose spat out rather bitterly, "I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise, you were right all along James, I'm not tough enough for stuff like this." It was clear that she was on the verge of saying something, so no one spoke, even as the silence trickled on. At last though, Rose did continue.

"I did everything I could." Rose said, "I spent all last year reading every book I could find, I tried to do it. To be tough like mum and dad, and Uncle Harry, but I can't James. I'm not strong like them, I'm not strong like you and Al." and finally, at last, it all made sense to James.

How had he never seen before, the way that the story of his First Year at Hogwarts must have seemed to Rose and Albus, and Lily, and all the rest of them? He had spent his whole childhood listening to stories about his father's heroic achievements, and yet it had somehow never occurred to him that his stories could have the same effects on his younger family.

No wonder Rose and Albus had not been themselves the year before, at least around him, until the last few weeks of Term had come: they had been afraid of him. No wonder Rose had spent the entire year as even more of a bookworm than usual, she had been searching for anything that could help her measure up.

James felt disgusted with himself for not having said anything sooner. As much as he loved having the image of the cool older brother – or in this case cousin – who went on all of the fantastic adventures, he would never have it at the expense of Al, Rose, and the like. He opened his mouth to tell her this, but someone else beat him to the punch.

"Rose, if James has been telling you that he's some kind of action hero than boy do I have some news for you." Andrew said, looking at James like he wanted to deck him right there.

"I never said –" James protested, but no one was listening to him anymore.

"You went through the same stuff as us in June," Andrew said, "You saw, it's not like everyone makes it out to be. You're not weak Rose, you were the only one who got us out of the Forest that night, I remember."

Rose remained unconvinced however, as she demanded of Andrew, "Oh yea, what do you see then? I expect you can see the thestrals perfectly can't you?"

Andrew looked down for a moment and said "I can't see them at all."

"But Andy you were –" James began, but Andrew cut him off yet again.

"I can't see them," he repeated, "And neither can Jeremey, because we were both unconscious before … before any of it happened."

And then it all returned to James in a flash, the flashes of that strange and deadly orange light which had clipped Jeremey, and then exploded just inches from Andrew's head, leaving both boys unconscious in the dirt before those horrible words were spoken … words he could never unhear.

"I'm not weak." Rose muttered to herself quietly, almost sounding like she did not quite believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. "I'm not weak." She said again, as though still getting a feel for the sentence that her lips were forming.

The rest of the trip up to the Castle passed in silence, but James noticed that Rose seemed considerably brighter after that. She was still rather dour, but her confidence seemed to have returned to her, and James could practically hear her brain whirring and thinking beside him.

* * *

><p>It seemed that Dwayne had indeed managed to catch up to Zach, and had caught Erin Christian Paul and Nick not too long after that, but the rest of them had managed to successfully elude him, making for a rather reasonable success on his part. But in light of what had happened on the ride to the Castle, James was more concerned with getting a hold of Zach than expressing how impressed he was with Dwayne's skills.<p>

"Yea, I saw them." Zach replied simply, seeming not to have quite as much interest in the matter as any of the rest of them. The fact that he could see them came as no surprise to James, though he had to admit that Zach's lack of interest in the matter was rather shocking.

"And what did they look like?" Andrew inquired, quite interested in the matter himself as James eyed Albus and Rose at the far end of the Gryffindor Table. The pair of them were involved in what appeared to be a spirited conversation with their fellow Second Years, and from the looks of things they were most definitely _not_ talking about anything related to what had happened in June, which heartened James a bit.

"Well, kind of like zombified Hippogriffs I suppose." Zach said, thinking for a moment before continuing "Kinda black, and with scales not feathers. And they looked almost like dripping emaciated things really." He shrugged, apparently satisfied with this explanation and returned his attention to the Sorting Hat, which had begun to break out into song.

Ignoring this, the three of them protested in unison "That's not what we meant!" eliciting a look of outright confusion from Zach, who James realized did not have the slightest idea that different people saw the thestrals differently.

"Well," James said rather haltingly as the Sorting Hat's song continued. "What we mean is, do they look … _solid_ … to you, or more like ghosts?" he asked, wincing as the Sorting Hat screeched something about togetherness. He wasn't sure if the Sorting Hat's tune had ever been right, but if so it had surely suffered over the years.

Zach looked at James strangely and replied "Well, of course they look solid. What do you mean by that?" a response which filled James with a profound sense of disappointment. If both Zach _and_ Albus could see the thestrals clearly, and it was just him and Rose having trouble, maybe he _was_ just weak.

At that moment however, they were interrupted by the smooth voice of Professor Wilkins carrying out over the Great Hall "Arnall, Mary!" and they realized that the sorting had begun. Not even something as important as this could distract James from the sorting, and so he left Jeremey and Andrew to explain what they had learned to Zach.

Mary Arnall was sorted into Hufflepuff, and James settled back into his seat to wait out the drudgery of unfamiliar names through the line. He didn't care about anything until the 'S's, and it was only two students deep in the 'W's to whom he actually paid any mind.

Ashley Howe became the first new Gryffindor, followed immediately after by Timothy Howell, which earned a hearty round of applause from the Gryffindor Table, though James doubted that any of them had so much as the slightest idea who either of these kids were. It was always nice to welcome some new Housemates.

The sorting seemed to drag on forever, mostly because James was entirely disinterested in the first three-quarters or so of the crowd that slowly thinned out. At last though, he was jolted awake from his daydream about the upcoming feast by the sound of a familiar name.

"Scamander, Lorcan." Came the call, as one of the two boys – as James half suspected that even they were not entirely sure which one of them was which – made his way up to the Sorting Hat and placed it over his head. It did not take long however, before the Sorting Hat made up it's mind.

"Ravenclaw!" it announced, evoking some sense of relief from James. The Scamanders were nice and all, but James did not think that he could deal with their constant jabbering about things that clearly did not exist.

But then, there was still Lysander, though James highly doubted that the Sorting Hat would dare to split the twins up. They were practically the same person, and so it was unthinkable that they could ever end up in different Houses.

Indeed, the Sorting Hat had barely touched the top of Lysander's head before it shouted out the same words that were undoubtedly hurtling through the boy's head at that moment. "Ravenclaw!" was the declaration, sending the second Scamander brother skipping happily after his brother.

There was some noticeable laughter at this, and even James could not help but look at Andrew for confirmation that what he had seen had in fact actually occurred. It was just too hysterical to actually be true, but from Andrew's gleeful expression there was no doubt that it had indeed.

"Pity they're not in Gryffindor." Jeremey said with a wide grin, "Those blokes look hysterical!" a sentiment which James immediately shot down.

"Trust me," he said insistently, "You would not want to be in the same House as the likes of them!" After the others shot him looks of confusion, James explained "Trust me, they can get very tiring very fast. I promise you the Ravenclaws will be itching to get them out of their study holes inside of a week!"

The others shrugged, and James could not really blame them, the Scamanders seemed like cool people until you got to know them enough to realize just how annoying they could actually be. It may not have been very fair for James to call anyone annoying, but as far as he was concerned the Scamanders could really use to dial it back quite a few notches.

Everyone shrugged as the sorting continued, they were now very close to the end of the alphabet, and not a one of them was mad enough to try and talk to James when he was so intently focused on what was going to happen. Unlike the Scamanders, James actually would enjoy having his cousins in the same House as him. After all, having the last name 'Weasley' meant that by definition you had to be awesome … well, Molly didn't count!

At long last however, there were only four people left, two girls whom James did not recognize, and of course his cousins Louis and Lucy. Personally he wasn't too convinced that either of them could be a Gryffindor, though Lucy maybe had the makings of a lion if she wanted to be one. If he was being completely honest, he saw Louis as a Badger and Lucy as a Birdbrain, but he was still holding out hope.

"Weasley, Louis." Professor Wilkins said, and there was a faint murmuring in the Great Hall as the small boy made his way up to the front of the Hall. Like James, Louis was rather small for his age, though he lacked James' upfront and vocal attitude. Still, he was a Weasley, and that name captured a lot of attention from anyone who had grown up in a Wizarding household.

James crossed his fingers under the table, and snuck a glance down the table at his brother and cousins who seemed similarly entranced. He was not sure where Dominique was sitting, but he had little doubt that she too was praying that her younger brother would be in her House: in that case Ravenclaw.

The hat seemed to be having trouble with Louis, a fact which was not lost on the boy who James could see was starting to get nervous under the hat. Though he also noticed that the hall was still murmuring about something, though James had an idea what that was about. Bill Weasley was not quite as famous as many of his younger siblings, and a lot of people were still trying to figure out who exactly this kid was.

James noticed Louis' mouth working furiously as he mouthed his thoughts aloud, an old habit of his which James had always found amusing. It seemed that Louis was talking this out very thoroughly with the hat, though oddly he didn't seem distressed or nervous anymore, just intently curious.

James made a mental note to ask Louis about this unusual display the next time they spoke. However, at that moment all thought was wiped from his head as the Sorting Hat finally lifted its brim upwards. The hall fell silent once again, as it always did when a particularly long sorting came to an end and listened with bated breath as the hat proclaimed …

"GRYFFINDOR!"

James rose to his feet and cheered loudly the moment that the first syllable had exited the hat's mouth. Unlike with Albus, he was allowed to show excitement at Louis' sorting, cousins were after all different from brothers, and he was quite happy to have yet another Weasley in Gryffindor House.

Albus, Fred, and Rose were on their feet at almost the same moment as James, and much of Gryffindor House followed moments later. After all, it was nice to point out to the other three Houses just how many famous kids you had in your House.

Lucy was next, walking up to the stool right as the applause for Louis died down. Louis gave Rose a hug as he sat down, already chattering away madly with his cousins as he searched out James and gave him a thumbs up, no doubt remembering James' unusual show of support. Louis continued scanning around, and the shrug he gave a moment later told James that he had caught his sister's eye. No doubt Dominique was disappointed to say the very least, though James supposed that Lucy would be joining her soon enough.

But then, far sooner than any of them had been expecting, the hat shouted its decision to the Hall, and indeed Lucy Weasley would not be going to Ravenclaw House any more than she would be joining her elder sister Molly in Hufflepuff.

A hush of shock spread across the Great Hall as the word echoed around their heads over and over again.

"Slytherin!"

* * *

><p>James did not believe it, he could not believe it! No cousin of his, no Weasley, could ever possibly be a Slytherin! Much less Lucy, small and troublesome as she was. There had to have been some sort of mistake, and James could see that he was not the only one who seemed surprised.<p>

At the other end of the table, Albus and the rest of his cousins had fallen silent, Hagrid had actually gone so far as to stand up at the staff table in shock, probably only inches away from declaring this to be a fraud! Even the Slytherins looked shocked, many of them no doubt wondering whether they _wanted_ a Weasley amongst their number.

The only person who did not look shocked – or even remotely surprised for that matter – by this turn of events was Lucy herself, who was looking around the Hall with a rather disinterested expression on her face.

Then, as though the result had been nothing more than she had expected, she hopped down from the stool and walked cheerfully enough to join her new Housemates at the Slytherin table, leaving the Great Hall in a state that it had never seen before: complete silence.

James couldn't believe it, and not just for the reasons that made everyone else gape in shock. If he had been told that one of his cousins _had_ to be in Slytherin, Lucy would probably have been his last guess! She was always sitting quietly in the corner, never drawing any attention to herself or … or …

And then, just like that, it started to make sense to him at last! Lucy, ever the quiet one, must have felt the need to distance herself from the rest of them over the years. After all, why else would she possibly have been sorted into Slytherin? Slytherins were evil, and Lucy was most definitely not evil!

OK, so James didn't have a problem with most of the people in Slytherin House – at least on a personal basis – and sure Scorpius was alright, but that did not change the fact that Slytherin was the House of evil!

He could not accept his cousin being in the House of Snakes, he just would not do it! This was an abomination against nature, no Weasley could ever be in Slytherin! He had, admittedly, been rather afraid about Al being sorted there but that had been more paranoia than anything else.

James glanced at the others, Andrew looked rather surprised himself while Zach seemed thoughtful. Jeremey, on the other hand, seemed to have fallen into a daydream – much in the way that students were prone to do during Professor Binns' long and boring lectures. James was rather annoyed by this to say the very least, would it have _killed_ Jeremey to at least pretend to be interested?

"James … isn't that your cousin?" Andrew asked in a hushed voice, as though he were just as horrified by the idea as James himself.

"Relax Andy, and you especially James." Zach said, glaring at the both of them. "My sister's in Slytherin too, there's nothing wrong with them!"

"Yea, but she's not really your sister so it doesn't really count." James replied quickly, "Lucy's a _Weasley_, we aren't Slytherins!" James and Albus considered themselves a part of the Weasley clan despite their last name being 'Potter', and often referred to the lot of them collectively as 'The Weasley Cousins', not bothering to differentiate themselves from the rest. After all, how many people in the world could brag that they were both Potters _and_ Weasleys by blood?

It was clear that James had stepped to far, as he realized just a moment too late. Zach never liked people reminding him of the fact that he was adopted, and he snapped at James rather loudly "You shut up James Potter or I swear on Merlin's trainers I will slit your throat right here!"

James fell silent, Zach's threats were always very effective – partly because none of them were ever completely sure he was kidding. And besides, he did have a fair point, even if James himself was not too willing to admit it given the circumstances.

"I need to talk to the others." He muttered, knowing that the rest of his cousins would already know this without his telling them. They would most likely be waiting for him in the Gryffindor Common Room when he got back, unfortunately Dominique would have to catch up later.

* * *

><p>James was distracted and jittery during the feast, unable to properly enjoy the amazing dishes that the school's House Elves had cooked up for them. Apparently his Aunt Hermione was still working on getting most of them to accept pay, but they were all taking vacation days every now and again, which was a big step … or so his Aunt told him.<p>

He wasn't sure why this occurred to him – except perhaps that his mind tended to wander at times like these – he didn't really care all that much about what the House Elves did. If they really were happy working, and it seemed like they were, then why not just leave them be? His dad had simply told him that there were things he just didn't understand, and that the Elves' kindness had been severely abused and taken advantage of before the War.

Still, whether the Elves were making a thousand galleons a day, or no more than a sickle an hour, no one could say that their cooking wasn't absolutely stellar! James had never quite been able to decide whether the House Elves could beat his Grandma Molly's cooking, but it would definitely have been close!

But the food just tasted stale in his mouth as he swallowed down what he could, his mind still on the sorting that had taken place moments ago. When he glanced looks over his shoulder at the Slytherin Table, Lucy seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself in deep conversation with a scruffy haired First Year boy.

It was almost as though she had wanted to be in Slytherin just like James had always wanted to be in Gryffindor, but that just didn't make any sense to him. How could_ boring Uncle Percy's_ daughter be a Slytherin? James probably knew Lucy less than any of his cousins, Molly included, but he had never pegged the quiet shy girl as anything other than a Hufflepuff or maybe a Ravenclaw.

When the feast finally came to an end, James dragged his dormmates away from the vanishing piles of desserts and said "Come on, let's _go_!"

"Wait come on James, just one more treacle tart!" Andrew protested longingly as the treats began to vanish from their trays. Jeremey seemed to echo this sentiment, trying to force his way around James to get back at the table.

"The two of you have eaten a full pie just between yourselves, eat any more and your brooms won't even be able to get you off the ground!" James said, a statement that was fairly hypocritical considering how he usually was with such things, but this was important!

"Oh just go James." Zach said with a sigh, "Don't worry I'll make sure they don't get lost." He promised, though James noticed he was eyeing the remaining pudding with a greedy eye himself.

James gave a sigh of exasperation but set off for the Gryffindor Tower without them, it would probably be easier having this conversation without them anyway.

* * *

><p>It took some time for the Common Room to clear out enough for the Weasley cousins to finally meet up in a quiet corner. Matters were not helped by the fact that James and Albus in particular had to shake the hands of virtually every Gryffindor who crossed their paths, all of them wanting to have their own time with the Potter boys.<p>

Louis too was getting a fair deal of attention from his fellow First Years, apparently he had mounted a heroic struggle against the giant squid when it had tried to capsize one of the boats, a story which James found downright laughable. The giant squid was probably the gentlest monster James had ever meant, as strange of a statement as that seemed, and would no more try to drown First Years than James' father would.

Indeed, their efforts took so long that by the time they were free of the annoyances they had to deal with the belated arrival of Jeremey, Andrew, and Zach, each of whom cost them several more minutes as they reminisced with James' family about the previous year before trudging off to the dorms as well.

At last though, they had gotten together, and it occurred to James that there was a pretty decent showing present. In addition to himself and Albus, Rose, Fred, and Louis were all there, leaving only three Weasley cousins at Hogwarts out of the loop: Molly (who was in Hufflepuff) Dominique (Ravenclaw) and of course, Lucy herself.

It was Fred who spoke first, shaking his head with a fierce shock that even James could not match. "I can't believe our cousin is a Slytherin!"

"They're not all that bad Fred!" Rose insisted, "Just look at Scorpius."

"Yea well, he's not really a Slytherin is he?" it had become an accepted 'fact' amongst them that Scorpius was not a 'real' Slytherin. "It must have been a mistake!" Fred said, now pacing back and forth across the carpet "There's no other explanation."

"The Sorting Hat doesn't make mistakes." James said gravely. "But that still doesn't explain why it is that …"

"Lucy wanted to be in Slytherin!" came the interruption, so quiet that James barely heard it. To all of their shock, it was Louis who had spoken, looking like he wished he had said nothing at all.

Feeling the weight of their gazes upon him, Louis explained "She was talking about it on the boats, she reckons that none of us get her – and to be fair I think she's right." The boy seemed surer of himself now, something that always came from talking to your fellow Weasley cousins. They were a very close and supportive group … when they weren't pranking each other mercilessly.

Rose seemed to understand this perfectly as she gasped and said "Of course! She chose Slytherin to stand apart from the rest of us!"

But apparently this was entirely wrong, as Louis began shaking his head as he explained "No, that's not it. I don't think any of us really knew Lucy the way we thought we did." To be fair, aside from Louis, none of them could say they'd ever had a very long conversation with Lucy before.

"So you're saying that she's been some kind of devil all these years and none of us have noticed?" Fred asked skeptically, clearly not buying this explanation.

"Not exactly," Louis allowed with a shrug, "But I don't think she's the angel we think she is either."

James, feeling oddly reflective, said slowly "We need to leave her be then." As the rest of them looked at him in shock, James continued "Getting in her face isn't going to help matters. Just back off, and she'll come to us sooner or later."

Albus looked downright scandalized as he asked "James … are you sure that you're alright?"

"Merlin protect us! James is actually talking sense!" Fred exclaimed, hugging James tightly and shouting "James, please come back to us! You're turning into Rose!" a joke which, while it made the rest of them laugh, earned him a sharp whack to the head from Rose.

"Who knew, I guess he _does_ have a brain." Rose said with a smirk as Fred rubbed his sore head. "Maybe there's even hope for you Fred." She added with a devious glint in her eyes.

"No thank you." Fred said firmly, "I like to keep a healthy dose of random insanity in my life thanks."

* * *

><p>The moment that James walked through the door into the Third Year Boys Dorm, it was like he was being bombarded by an army of drunken House Elves. "What happened?" came the shouts from every direction, a query which he heard at least a dozen times before he even had time to get a word out.<p>

James explained it to them, getting to the point as directly and quickly as he possibly could. It was getting late and he really wanted to sleep, which unfortunately did not seem to be high on the priorities of any of his dormmates.

"Wait," Zach said the moment that James had finished, sounding quite beside himself with shock. "_You_ … James Sirius Potter, are going to just give your own cousin space, and not nag or annoy her, after she was sorted into Slytherin!"

To be fair, it was a valid point, but James was tired and annoyed by this point, not to mention he hated it when people used his middle name like that. It was almost like they were mocking him, and NO ONE mocked James Sirius Potter, a case in which the use of his middle name was entirely appropriate!

"Yes I am Zachary …" James retorted, but unfortunately his sarcastic remark came to a halt as he could not remember what Zach's middle name was, or even if he had ever asked.

"Alex." Andrew offered lazily from the other side of the Dorm where he was tugging on his pajamas.

"Right!" James said, shaking his head as though he had known that all along. "Yes, I am going to do exactly that Zachary Alexander Tolen- … wow your name has way too many syllables!"

"Oi! Can it!" Zach replied with a grin, clubbing James over the head with his Beater's Bat, which he had spent the last half hour casually spinning in his palm.

James winced, though the impact was softened, and grabbed the nearest object to use as a defensive weapon. Unfortunately, this happened to be a quill, which was not a very good shield and resulted in him getting hit several times before Jeremey finally stopped them.

"Hey! No one is allowed to kill James but me!" he protested, wresting Zach's bat out of his hand and hitting James one last time for good measure. As he tossed the bat back at Zach with a smirk, Andrew demanded "Why do you get to kill him?" as though the right to end James' life was something very important to him.

Jeremey just shrugged and said "We're blood brothers, it comes with the territory."

"Yea, but that means I can kill you too." James joked.

"No it means you can try!" Jeremey shot back, giving James a look that clearly expressed his doubt that James could accomplish such a feat.

"Oh please, even Julie could kick your scrawny butt!" James replied with a laugh, ignoring Andrew's halfhearted demand that they leave his sister out of it.

"Care to put that to the test Potter?" Jeremey asked with a smirk, grabbing a pillow off of Andrew's bed.

"You're on Hall!" James replied just before Zach caught him full on in the face with a pillow of his own.

It was three in the morning before anyone got to sleep that night.

**Whoo! Finally back at Hogwarts, and so it's time for the story to pick up quite bit! How will James and the other Weasley cousins react to seeing one of their own in Slytherin House? You'll have to stay tuned to find out.**

**A big thanks once again to everyone who has been following me, and to everyone reading PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a REVIEW! :)**

**Also, to those who haven't yet, be sure to check out my Author Page for the Rebooted James Potter and the Continuous Legacy, which is being updated every Monday, and be sure to check us out on Twitter TheJamesSPotter**

**Thanks again to everyone! :)  
><strong>


	7. Chapter 7: We Stand Together

Chapter Seven: We Stand Together

Lucy it seemed had no desire to speak to her family about what had happened during the Sorting Ceremony, no doubt knowing exactly how they must have reacted to her placement in Slytherin. Just as they had agreed, everyone backed off from Lucy almost immediately, not even James so much as tried to speak with her – or perhaps more impressively in James' case, prank her.

Dominique had been informed of this plan, and though no one had spoken to Molly about it, it was apparent that Lucy's elder sister did not care in the slightest. In fact, from what little they could gather, it seemed that Molly was pleased about this turn of events. Perhaps she thought that having cousins in each of the four Houses would improve her chances of being Head Girl, which was all she ever spoke about lately.

But regardless of what the rest of them were doing, Lucy seemed to be perfectly content with what had happened, as Louis reported that he had never seen her in any of their classes without a pack of other First Year Slytherins, and they all seemed cheerful enough. It was somewhat surprising to them that Lucy could so easily assimilate into Slytherin, but it seemed as though she had truly been born for it.

Considering all of the lengths that they had gone through to make sure that they did not get on Lucy's case, it came as a great offense to James when, on just the fourth day of term, he received a letter from his parents.

To say that James was surprised to see the family owl Hedwig II flying overhead so early in the year was a gross understatement. But sure enough, the bird soared closely above the Gryffindor Table and dropped a small envelope on James' plate. As James picked it up in confusion, he noticed the bird swoop to the other side of the table, depositing another letter on Albus' lap.

James and Albus both exchanged looks of confusion, their parents had never written to them so early in the school year before, and they usually timed their owls to arrive at night while they were in the Common Room, so as to spare their sons the embarrassment and allow them to actually spend the time to read them.

As a small tawny owl flew over from the Ravenclaw Table and dropped a letter on Louis' head, followed moments later by another pair of owls by Rose and Fred, James began to put the dots together. It should have been obvious to him from the very start! But how could their parents be so distrustful of them? It was not like they were the most kindhearted of children, but surely their parents could not think that they could _possibly_ be so cruel!

Sure enough though, when James opened the letter, the message was exactly what he had expected. Though the words were merely printed, he could practically hear the words reverberating through the air as though shouted at him by a Howler – or worse still by his mother herself!

_James,_

_ Your Uncle Percy told me today that Lucy was sorted into Slytherin during the Sorting Ceremony, and I can only hope that you are smart enough to realize that Lucy is still your cousin. Just as I told you when you started Hogwarts, no matter what House you are sorted into, it does not change the fact that we love you – and the same goes now for your cousin! If I hear that you have given her even one ounce of trouble for being in Slytherin then I promise you that you will be in more trouble than I can express on parchment! You know that Slytherins are not evil James, no matter how much you like to pretend that they are. Your friend Scorpius is a Slytherin and he's a perfectly nice boy._

James snorted derisively at this, remembering only too well how his mother had reacted to Scorpius Malfoy's presence in her home the year before. She was right, but that didn't change the fact that she was being disgustingly hypocritical! Of course, that was only one instance, and was more the exception than the rule with Ginny Potter, but it was still the principle of the thing!

_I hope that you see for yourself how important it is that you make Lucy feel accepted and welcome, this is her First Year at Hogwarts and I will remind you that you were not so confident during your own First Year James Sirius Potter! She is still just as much your cousin as Rose, and Fred, and Louis and I expect you to treat her as such._

_ By that same token James, Molly and Dominique are your cousins too, and from what I understand if you haven't been giving them much of your time either. Nothing is more important than family James, don't forget it._

_Love,_

_Mum and Dad_

James looked at the letter with an expression of the utmost indignation on his face. For once, perhaps for the first time in his entire life, he had actually decided to do the mature thing. To act on all of those family values that his parents had spent so long trying to instill in him, and do the right thing by a member of his family. And what had happened as a result? His parents had come to him with these groundless accusations!

Of course, his parents had no way of knowing what kind of reaction James had had to all of this, and even he had to admit that it would be a hard sell to convince them that he had reacted in the way that he did.

James exchanged a look with Fred, who had just finished reading his own letter, and the two of them shook heads in silent agreement. That did it, never again would they ever attempt anything like this ever again! What good was it doing the 'right thing' if you didn't even get credit for it? At the very least, at least he would always get the credit for his mischievous ways.

"This is such a load of rubbish!" James growled angrily as Fred glared at his letter in anger. Apparently, Fred was unable to believe that his mum had actually written it, and to be honest James didn't blame him. Auntie Angelina was no Uncle George, but she was still pretty cool!

"I dunno James," said Zach, who had been reading the letter over James' shoulder and quietly explaining its contents to Jeremey and Andrew in a hush. "Maybe cause, well to put it bluntly, this is _you_ that we're talking about here." He said, saying so with much more comfort than James would have expected to see out of either of his other Dormmates. Zach was the only one who freely criticized the rest of them without fear of retribution – he was Zach, it was his job.

"You'd think they'd trust me just a little bit!" James said, but none of the others were showing him any sympathy here. He had to admit that they had a point, this did seem like something that he would have indeed done had his parents not written him. To be fair, the same could be said for each of the boys sitting around him, but that was irrelevant.

Much to James relief, Rose and Albus came to join them the moment that they had finished, though Louis had to run off to class immediately and did not have any time to spare. Charms was all the way on the other side of the Castle, and Louis was bound to get lost two or three times along the way.

"So you got letters too did you?" James asked the pair, who sat down as the table started to clear. Students were beginning to head out across the Castle to their various classes and activities, so there was plenty of room for the lot of them to group together.

"Yup," Albus remarked with a roll of his eyes, "telling us how they're gonna drag us home if they so much as _think_ that we're giving Lucy a hard time." He swapped letters with Fred, who almost immediately flung Albus' letter away in disgust.

"Can you believe this?" he demanded "They told him 'not to get sucked into' what me and James were gonna do! Why do they just _assume_ that we're gonna be the ones to start something?" No one answered, they didn't need to. Even James knew the answer to that question was so obvious it was comical.

"Well, that does seem quite like the sort of thing that you lot would get up to now doesn't it?" asked a voice right behind them, causing James to practically leap into the air. However it was just Dominique, who seemed to have noticed their gathering from the Ravenclaw Table and was determined not to be left out again.

"You can't say that you're not insulted Dom!" James insisted, to which the blond haired girl just shrugged. "It's not like they don't have a point James, we're not exactly the most trustworthy of people."

James could not deny that there was some reason for pause when the most trustworthy and responsible person in a given group was Rose Weasley, who despite evidence to the contrary could be quite devious when she wanted to be. Of course, Molly was around somewhere, but their parents knew better than to expect any of them to listen to her.

"Does it really matter?" asked Andrew, much to the shock of the rest of them, who had by this time forgotten that James' three friends were still sitting there. "You won't do it, and then it'll be over with."

James had to admit that this was a good point, but it was still rather offensive that his parents had felt the need to send the letter in the first place, like even _he_ could possibly be that needlessly cruel!

"Whatever." James said crossly, still not thinking that this was an entirely fair way of his parents to act. He was going to have to figure out a way to get his parents to trust him, else he was sure to be getting stupid letters like this every day of the week for the next four years!

* * *

><p>Eventually though, they all had to head to class, so their conversation was cut a bit short in light of the fact that they all had to go in different directions. Albus Fred and Rose met up with Scorpius Malfoy and strode off for the dungeons where they would no doubt have to listen to Professor Slughorn incessantly telling them how well he knew their parents all lesson.<p>

James and Albus had always found this trying in the extreme, though Rose it seemed had delighted in nothing more than hearing all about how clever she was and how much she reminded Slughorn of her mother. Though, from what their parents had said, Professor Slughorn was most certainly not any of their favorite teachers.

James waved goodbye to his cousins as Dominique rushed off to join a group of Ravenclaws that he did not recognize and head off to Charms class, which was taught by the rather quirky and often forgetful Professor Lund. None of them were particularly fond of their Charms professor, who often forgot what she had just taught them and insisted on going over it another four or five times, but she was certainly not the worst that Hogwarts had to offer.

By far everyone's favorite teacher though, was Professor Wilkins, who taught the immensely popular subject Defense Against the Dark Arts. Still, she probably could have taught History of Magic and still managed to be the most well liked teacher in the entire Castle. She was so nice that even James didn't like to cause trouble in her class, though that might have also been because the subject actually interested him just a little bit.

"I trust that everyone had a pleasant summer." Professor Wilkins said, and with her you actually felt that she was genuinely interested in how your summer had been. "Unfortunately we do not have the time to exchange stories at the moment; your Third Years mark a very important stage in your magical education, and we will need every moment together to make sure that you learn what you must."

James paled somewhat at these words, he had not expected to be hearing stuff like that so soon, wasn't that what they told you in your Fifth Year? The other Gryffindors sitting around him seemed to echo his concern, but the Ravenclaws jumped up in their seats excitedly as though determined to show their Head of House that they had what it took!

"Of course," she said, smiling warmly, "If any of you do wish to stop by my door is always open." An offer which, had it come from any other teacher, would have been met with laughter.

"Yes, Erin?" Professor Wilkins said, as the rest of them instinctively glanced towards Erin Malloy, who indeed had raised her hand. For some reason there seemed to be an instinctual requirement that everyone turn and stare at any student who dared to ask a question, as though they needed to feel even more stupid.

But Erin seemed not to notice, she _was_ a Ravenclaw after all, as she asked "But Professor, surely our grades aren't really _that_ important yet, I mean we are only Third Years." A query which earned her looks of the utmost shock and indignation from her fellow Ravenclaws. Even Jason looked somewhat scandalized, and that was saying something!

"Erin, your studies are always very important." Professor Wilkins explained, and it occurred to James that she was the only teacher who addressed her students on a first name basis. All of their other Professors used their surnames: Mr. Potter, Mr. Knight, Miss. Malloy, and the like. "The study habits that you form now are the ones that you are going to carry with you during your O.W.L. year, so it is important that we instill those study habits in you now so that you are not overwhelmed in your Fifth Year."

The Ravenclaws looked largely justified by this answer, as the Gryffindors – plus Erin – slumped into their seats in disappointment. Many of them had older siblings or relatives who had taken their O.W.L.s, and they all knew that they were a lot of work. If they were going to have to deal with an extra _two years _of that kind of work James was certain that they might just explode.

But, as Professor Wilkins had said, they had to get to work, and so the class took out their quills and began taking notes as she reviewed the curriculum for the year going forward, but James was not paying attention to what she was saying anymore.

Ordinarily this would not be saying very much, as James rarely paid attention in any of his classes, but Defense Against the Dark Arts was generally the exception to that rule. But no, today he was not interested in even the most interesting types of magic that Professor Wilkins was going to be teaching them.

No, James was instead far more interested in a far more pressing issue, and that was the fact that Erin Malloy seemed to have been kidnapped and replaced by an angel from heaven. Because no one, not even Erin Malloy, could possibly look that amazing wearing nothing but her normal school robes, and yet James could not tear himself away from her. The clenching pain in his stomach was worse than it had ever been before, and it occurred to him that keeping up his friendship with her was going to be hard work given his feelings.

Andrew seemed to notice his staring, as he punched James in the side and muttered "Hey dummy! Just a tip, but if you don't put your eyes back in your skull someone's gonna notice." Andrew seemed to find this immensely amusing, but James scowled in deep annoyance with himself and with his friend.

At least in part, James was annoyed with himself for being so obvious about what he was thinking. Sure Andrew was in on his secret, a 'secret' which was a very common thing for James to be moaning and complaining about at night in the Dormitories, but this was Andrew that they were talking about! And as much as Andrew was his friend, James knew that Andrew was not the most perceptive of people, so things were bad if even he could see it!

Zach, who was sitting on Andrew's other side glanced down the table towards James and realized in less than a second what was going on. Zach was by far the most perceptive of the group, and James supposed that it would be too much to ask that he wouldn't figure it out. Rolling his eyes, Zach whispered "For Merlin's sake James, if you like her that much just talk to her."

James gave Zach an appalled look of indignation, and the other boy snorted at him. James knew that it was unlikely that anyone could overhear them, but he did not want to take any chances. Zach shook his head, but consented to write his message to James on a scrap of parchment, which the two began passing back and forth.

_Tell her!_ Zach had written, and James gave him a look of the utmost annoyance as he wrote back _I can't! I'll be a laughing stock if she says no!_

_What happened to Mr. 'Every Girl in the Year Would Kill to Date Me'?_ came the scrawled response, along with a cocky grin from Zach, who knew that he had James exactly where he wanted him. Unfortunately though, that was not all that the note said as Zach had added a sarcastic. _What, are you afraid of cooties or something?_

_Haha, you're hilarious! _replied James, who had of course stopped believing in things like cooties a long time ago. OK, so maybe it was more like a few months ago, but whatever the point was the same!

This continued back and forth for some time until at last Zach wrote James a single line on the very last inch of space left on the parchment. _If you don't soon, someone else will._it said, which of course did not make any sense to James. He was about to ask Zach what he was talking about, but with a tilt of his head, Zach directed James' attention to the person sitting who had been sitting – forgotten till now – on James' right hand side.

Upon catching his eye, James turned back to his books with a huff and committed himself to trying to get these notes right, something that he had never made a conscious effort to do eve in Defense Against the Dark Arts. He did not want to have to look at Jeremey right now.

* * *

><p>James knew that he was being entirely unfair, after all he and Jeremey had agreed to make a fair race out of it, but he had never actually viewed Jeremey as a serious threat. After all he was a total goofball, not to mention that he was so scrawny that he would have been a fair competition for a little girl in an arm-wrestling match.<p>

Of course, both of these things could be said for James as well, but that was not important. Zach was right, he needed to get a move on things, if only it was that easy.

When the bell sounded and the class began to pack up James paused midway through shoving his copy of _Defense Against the Darkest Arts_ into his bag and glanced at his best friend. Jeremey looked absolutely miserable, and it was not hard to guess why. Jeremey had always felt much worse about this whole thing than James did, as though they whole thing was his fault and he should be ashamed of himself.

James tapped Jeremey on the shoulder, and the boy reluctantly looked up – it was clear that he did not want to talk to James very much at the moment, and James couldn't really blame him. Flashing a grin, James said "Dude, stop being such a baby. Field's wide open for you too."

Jeremey gave James a suspicious look but did not say anything, James knew that the other boy probably had a hard time believing that James honestly meant that, but was also immensely confused by the fact that James had even said it in the first place.

At last, Jeremey nodded and muttered "We'll talk later." a prospect which James did not find very inviting, but he nodded briefly. The classroom was entirely deserted by this time, and James was eager to get outside to enjoy some time on the grounds before their next class. If there was one thing that he had learned from two years at Hogwarts it was that winter came all too quickly in Scotland.

As they headed towards the door though, Professor Wilkins said "Just the students I wanted to see. A moment if you please boys, I won't take too much of your time." She sounded amused by something, and so the boys walked over to her desk with some confusion.

Professor Wilkins looked at each of them in turn, fixing them each with a stare of such immense disappointment that they wanted to retreat into puddles of shame as she said "I understand that your social lives are very important, but please leave your discussions about who is dating who – or wants to be – for when class is over."

The four of them looked at her in shock, how had she known what they were talking about? There was no way that she could have heard them from all the way back there, not even the people around them had heard their brief conversation before everything else was put on parchment, a scrap of parchment which James had already wiped blank just to be safe.

Professor Wilkins merely smiled at them before saying "I've been teaching here for nearly ten years boys, and to be fair you were not exactly making it difficult to figure out." James had to give her that, there were plenty of clues, but had she actually been paying that much attention to them out of the corner of her eye whilst continuing to teach the class?

They nodded weakly and mumbled their apologies, resolving to reserve their conversations to the classes of teachers whose opinion they could care less about.

As they were leaving however, Professor Wilkins had one final word to say. "And Jeremey," she added, though all four boys turned around. "I would advise you not worry too much about all that."

The other three looked between Jeremey and Professor Wilkins with varying expressions of confusion, but the Canadian boy just nodded once and gave a rather small smile before turning to go. Devoid of any other alternative of finding out what had happened, the others followed him.

James did not have the slightest idea what those final words had meant, but he was sure that he would find out soon enough. After all, Jeremey always told them everything, so why should this be any different?

But it would seem that whatever this was, Jeremey had no interest in sharing it with any of them, as he remained mute all the way out onto the grounds. No matter what they said he would not answer them, they could barely even get more than two words out of his mouth!

"Just tell us already!" Andrew demanded, by this point they were sitting underneath a tree near the Black Lake, one of their favorite places on the grounds to hang out. But Jeremey remained as silent as ever.

"It's none of your business!" Jeremey growled, "I know it's hard for you guys to believe that there's stuff that doesn't concern you but not everything involves you!" This was a rather hypocritical coming from Jeremey, but it was clear that they were pushing him.

"Glad to see you trust your best friends then." Zach grumbled, it was not like any of them had ever said that they weren't to keep secrets from each other, but it had sort of happened along the way. Of course, when you lived with your best friends anyways it was hard to keep very much secret regardless, so it may not have been honesty so much as resignation to the fact that they would figure it out eventually.

Of course, it would have been naïve to assume that none of them withheld anything from the others, as they each certainly had their own fair share of secrets. But this was different, they had undeniable proof that something was up, and Jeremey was not telling them what it was!

"It's not a matter of trust!" Jeremey snapped back, "It's just something that I don't want to talk about." His eyes flitted quickly towards James and then Andrew when he said this, and then settled back on Zach before saying "It's not like I'm the only one keeping secrets _Zach_! Or should I tell them about –?"

Jeremey had indicated James and Andrew with a jabbing point of his finger, but Zach apparently had already known exactly what Jeremey was talking about as he gave him a murderous look before interrupting "Fine! I get it!"

If James was intrigued before that was nothing compared to what was going through his head now. His face split into a wide grin as he turned to Zach and asked "What don't you want Jer to tell us Zach?"

Zach tried to wave their questions aside, but Andrew was on him before he could so much as breathe, "Yea Zach, after all we shouldn't keep any secrets from each other." Andrew looked just as delighted by this as James did, but that jubilation was not going to last for very long.

Zach, rather than looking nervous that they were on to him, was entirely nonplussed as he looked at James and said "James, I trust you recall 'that damned Quaffle'." before turning to Andrew and saying with equal disinterest "And I need not remind _you_ of last Easter."

They both fell silent immediately, their grins being replaced with looks of the utmost horror that Zach may in fact share that story with the others. James' story, admittedly, was nothing too embarrassing, but it still was not something he wanted circulating around.

"Fine, you win Zach." James said, accepting that there were still plenty of secrets within their little group despite all of their insistences to the contrary just moments before. This thought was not lost on Jeremey, who promptly leaned back against the tree and said "No, I believe that **I** win."

He had a point at that, James had to admit that his friend had managed to worm his way out of that corner remarkably well.

* * *

><p>It was over a week before Lucy spoke to any of them, a fact which did not surprise James – or anyone else with an ounce of sense in their heads – in the slightest. No doubt she was still uncertain if the rest of them were going to be accepting of her sorting, which only was only complicated by the fact that she had never been particularly close to any of them. By an unlucky combination of being their Uncle Percy's daughter, and being the quietest and most withdrawn of the Weasleys – even moreso than her sister – she had often been the odd man out so to speak.<p>

But at long last she confronted the rest of them, approaching them at the Gryffindor Table one night at dinner. It was clear that she was not very happy about this, but felt as though she had no choice. James wondered how this must have felt for her, what she must have been thinking all this time.

They had not seen Scorpius Malfoy very much over the last week, as they had begged him to keep an eye on Lucy for them as much as he possibly could, and there was a bit of instinctual shock from many of them at the sight of someone standing at the Gryffindor Table clothed in green.

Lucy did not look at any of them directly, but stared down at her shoes and said "I know what all of you are thinking. But I'm not devastated about being in Slytherin … I like it here." She paused, as though half expecting one of them to shout that it couldn't be, or else interrupt her in some other way, but no one did.

"There's nothing wrong with Slytherin!" she maintained adamantly, still waiting it would seem for one of them to say something, but they just looked disinterested for the most part. To be honest, none of them were really interested in this anymore – it was old news by this point. Maybe if it had been Louis in Slytherin, but Lucy was like Molly in their eyes: somewhat of an afterthought.

"That's cool Lucy, why don't you tell us all about it over breakfast tomorrow?" Rose suggested as she and Albus got up along with Darren Shindler and Julie Knight. "We've got a Potions Exam tomorrow that we've gotta study for, but I'll be happy to hear about it in the morning."

"Yea, same here Lucy." Albus said with a wave as he left,

The four of them left the Great Hall for the library, and Lucy stared after them in shock as though not believing what Rose had just said. "Did she just …?" Lucy began before being interrupted by a rising Fred Weasley.

"Yea she did, now if you don't mind I'm going to make sure that my dear cousins don't get eaten alive by Madam Pince, I hear that's what she does on her weekends." As he got up to leave he added, "Be sure to wait for me to tell that story by the way Luce!"

Madam Pince was the Hogwarts librarian, and apparently her mother had held the very same post when James' parents were in school. If the stories were anything to go by, then the current Madam Pince had inherited every ounce of her mother's spite, even though she was still a rather young woman.

Lucy looked as though she had just been told that her cousins were all going to snap their wands in half and go and live amongst the Muggles. To be fair, it was rather surprising to hear them being so encouraging when it came to something like this. After all, they had all made it clear on many occasions that they detested Slytherins in any capacity, with Scorpius Malfoy being the one occasionally half-heated exception.

"Yea, I gotta go too Lucy," said Louis, who patted her on the shoulder before saying "Dom and I got some stuff to do tonight, but I'll be there tomorrow morning too."

James was now the only cousin left at the table, and no doubt Lucy thought that her surprises were over, but James had been talked into this as well, and there was no point in backing out now.

Rising to his feet, he flashed Lucy a grin and said "See you tomorrow Snake."

OK, so maybe James wasn't quite as willing to accept this as the others were just yet.

**Thanks again to everyone, don't forget to REVIEW! :)**

**And remember, the James Potter and the Continuous Legacy Reboot is being updated every Monday as well, so be sure to check that out.**

**Thanks again to everyone! I'm so grateful to everyone who has been reading! :)**


	8. Chapter 8: The Family Business

Chapter Eight: The Family Business

As September gave way to October, Hogwarts began to settle back into a familiar routine. The 'Golden Marauders' – as James was still calling them when no one else was around – were up to their usual nonsense, and classes were back in earnest. Occasionally, either Albus or Fred would join in, but it was becoming apparent that the 2nd Year Gryffindor boys were starting to become an honest to goodness group of pranksters in their own right.

Of course, they were nothing on the Golden Marauders, as neither Luke Grant nor Darren Shindler – the other two boys in the group – had the kind of troublemaking instinct to keep up with Albus and Fred. Still, James was quite impressed when he heard that the four younger boys landed themselves with a week of detentions for flooding the dungeons with swelling solutions.

Unfortunately, there was a fifth member of this circle of friends – and as much as James was on good terms with the boy he could never quite accept his presence there. Because, as cool as he was, Scorpius Malfoy was _still_ a Slytherin and that meant that he was the enemy!

Even worse, as strange as it would seem to James, Albus' friends seemed to enjoy doing things that were completely within the realms of the rules! It was frightening and disturbing to say the very least, but he supposed that things like that could happen when you spent so much time around Rose Weasley.

Unlike James – who had relegated the Gryffindor girls in his year to oblivion long ago – Albus, Fred and the lot seemed to actually enjoy the company of Rose, Julie, and even the immensely boring Daniele Fleming from time to time. Sadly, as good as their intentions were, Albus and Fred were not able to shake free of Rose's destructive influence, and James had even seen them studying at the library!

OK, well Fred hadn't been studying, but the rest of them anyway.

Of course, James could not really talk seeing as he was beginning to spend a little time with his head on the grindstone as well. Professor Wilkins had not lied, their workload was increasing dramatically in every class, and not even James was able to get by effortlessly anymore – and while he wasn't pulling 'O's he was managing to do well enough to keep his parents off his back.

Amazingly, the day had indeed come where James and Albus Potter found themselves hanging out in the library of all places, reading up on antidotes countercharms and the like whilst Rose looked at them with expressions of the utmost pride. For some reason, they felt dirty every time this happened – a sentiment which Fred was doing nothing to stifle.

The younger boy lost no opportunity to berate his cousins for their actions – James most especially – and had followed them to the library to do exactly that. James and Andrew were going over Transfiguration notes, whilst Jeremey and Zach were doing their best to understand what on earth had gone on in Muggle Studies the day before. Unfortunately, James' belief that Muggle Studies would be an easy 'O' had proved to be woefully inaccurate as it seemed that none of them knew the first thing about how Muggles lived.

The one thing that James had learned about studying was that it was at least somewhat more respectable if done in packs, and so he made sure that he and Albus coordinated their study sessions so that they looked slightly less pathetic. After all, no one was going to make fun of a group of twelve people studying – which was exactly what they had.

Albus was sitting across from James, going over his star charts with Luke – though it was clear that neither of them had the slightest idea what they were reading. Slightly better off was Darren Shindler, the only person who looked like he understood what he was reading as he sat quietly by himself. Julie Knight – who was there despite the adamant protests of her older brother – was reading thoughtfully over his shoulder, looking confused but altogether on top of things.

Worst of the lot though were Rose and Dominique – the Ravenclaw and the Ravenclaw wannabe as they saw it – who studied together and seemed to delight in giving them all triumphant glances. The pair of them had spent years trying to impress upon their cousins – and by extension their cousins' friends – how important studying was, and they viewed this as their moment of triumph. Dominique was so flushed with victory that she had abandoned her fellow Ravenclaws to sit with them.

Still, James could at least take some comfort in the fact that he was not the only one who was being forced to study. Jason and Erin were in the library almost every day – often accompanied by Paul O'Reilly or Nick Aten – and he had seen Christian Kennedy and Dwayne Powelly occasionally as well.

In fact, aside from Fred – who would not study solely on principle – the only person whom James had not seen studying was Scorpius Malfoy, who indeed had stopped by earlier in the evening just to tease them about it. Apparently he was just such a little genius that studying was beneath him … git!

OK, fine. He was their friend so James supposed that he should not go around calling him a git, but it was still totally unfair that he could get by without ever having to study at all! Of course, it occurred to James that he had been able to do the same in his Second Year, but that didn't really mean all that much did it?

"Well well well," Scorpius said with a devious tone that sounded remarkably like Remington Parker's had when he was about to ruin James' day, "Can my eyes be deceiving me? The great and mighty James Potter could not possibly have sunk so low as to be studying!" Scorpius was now shaking from the effort of trying not to laugh, and it was all James could do not to laugh as well.

James had to hand it to the little Snake, as he still thought of Scorpius from time to time, he could be rather clever at times – though of course it was unacceptable when James himself was the target! Had it been anyone else, James would have been only too eager to jump in, but under the circumstances he could not help but feel mildly annoyed.

Unfortunately for James though, his irritation had only just begun – as the last person James wanted to see at the moment walked through the doors just moments later. "Yes I'm afraid it's true Scorp." Fred said as though the two had planned this out beforehand, "James and Albus have turned to the Dark Side!" The two cast looks down at them and shuddered before murmuring together "Books … how barbaric!"

"Just cause we don't want to have to repeat our Second Year Fred!" Albus snapped back, before Rose could say something stupid about how studying was important for some other stupid reason. James knew that the last thing they needed was for Rose to open her mouth and try to give some sort of explanation, they would never live down the shame if she did!

Either way though, Fred and Scorpius were still sufficiently amused by this course of events, and in Fred's case a bit ashamed it would seem. Of course, James could not blame him as it was indeed a sad day for Hogwarts when James Sirius Potter was doing nothing but studying for any length of time. Madam Pince had come by several times, insisting that he could not possibly be simply studying.

James didn't remember all of his dad's stories, but he was certain that the old Madam Pince could not have been _that_ nasty! The new librarian had practically beaten him over the head with her copy of _Spellmaster's Syllabus_ when he had told her to just leave him alone to study! Was it _that_ hard to believe that he actually needed to study? Why would all of his Professors tell him how important it was to study and then act all surprised when he actually took the time to do so?

Maybe if he had moved into the library like Rose had done the year before, but he was still only studying enough to get by. He probably wasn't spending more than four or five hours a week in the library, but from the stories that were going around the Castle one would think that James had demanded transfer to Ravenclaw House!

"Some of us," Scorpius said with a grin "Don't need to study, but I guess it's not your fault that you're not as smart as Fred and me." Scorpius seemed to be enjoying himself just a little bit too much. They might be friendly now, but James was not opposed to giving the boy the Slytherin Treatment – which consisted of several weeks of nasty pranking – if he kept this up.

"Oh Merlin!" Rose exclaimed before any of them could stop her, "If you're comparing your intelligence to Fred then I've got bad news for you Scorpy…" she trailed off as though unable to bear the horrifying news that she had to deliver to poor Scorpius, and even Scorpius laughed along at this. There was only one person, it seemed, who did not find this absolutely hysterical.

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean cuz?" Fred demanded, looking at his cousin expectantly. This was one of those times when it was hard to tell if Fred was joking or not, and that made this a very dangerous situation for Rose especially.

Unfortunately, smart as she was Rose had always lacked basic common sense when it came to things such as these, and so she did not hesitate to tell Fred exactly what they were all thinking. "Well obviously it means that you're about as intelligent as Marcus."

Marcus was Rose's owl, and was without a doubt the most idiotic bird that any of them had ever seen in their entire life. The day had yet to come when Marcus would deliver a letter without incident, and many of them doubted that it ever would. For some reason the owl's incompetence seemed to make all of their parents laugh, but to Rose it was just downright annoying!

Fred gave them all a very stern look – one which disturbingly resembled Professor McGonagall when she was displeased with them – and said very slowly "Maybe I am, but at least I haven't sold my soul and buried myself a bunch of stupid books." This was not the first time that they had heard this, and James knew that Fred was disappointed with him especially.

"Fred," James began, "I'm sorry but I need to –" But it would seem that Fred didn't care whether James needed to keep his grades up in order to keep his parents from removing his head from his shoulders or not, as he no longer wanted anything to do with this conversation.

"Whatever, I'm gonna go have fun. If you lot remember what that is you're welcome to join me." He said with a deep sigh as he turned and left the library, Scorpius right at his heels. James and Jeremey exchanged looks – both boys longing to get up at that very moment and follow the two out the door on some fanciful adventure elsewhere in the Castle … but neither of them could afford a screw-up on their respective exams.

With one last longing look at the doorway through which Fred and Scorpius had just vanished, they both glanced back at their notes. Fred would get it soon enough, though to be fair Jeremey probably didn't care nearly as much as James did about what Fred thought. Still, at least now they could finish and get out of the library as soon as possible.

"Do my eyes deceive me?"

But then, James should have known from the start that it would not have been so easy. Word travelled fast in Hogwarts, and it had amazed him that they had not needed to deal with this before now.

Molly Weasley had stumbled upon their study session at last.

* * *

><p>"You're all studying?" Molly asked, looking positively delighted by the prospect, "I must say that I couldn't believe that the rumors were true!" She paused as though expecting someone to tell her that they had been doing this all along, but no one spoke. It was a good thing that neither Louis nor Lucy were present – the First Years having more than enough trouble meeting kids in their own Year to be able to afford spending too much time with their older cousins – had they been there, they certainly would have told Molly off the moment she arrived.<p>

Instead, they all just ignored her, continuing to stare into their books as though they could not bear to look away from them for even a moment. For Rose and Dominique – perhaps even for Albus – this was not too unusual, but for the others this was a remarkable change. Even Julie and Darren were not the type of people you would expect to see reading books, though Luke and Zach did fit the bill in some cases.

Oblivious to the fact that she was getting a reception akin to the one they given to Professor Binns on a daily basis, Molly continued uninterrupted.

"I'm glad that you decided to take my advice seriously." She continued pompously, either not noticing or not caring that this comment drew derisive snorts from both James and Albus, "Your studies are the most important thing after all, and I must say that I was quite afraid that you were going to let them fall by the wayside."

It appeared that she had only just noticed that her cousins were not alone, as she practically jumped into the air in delight as she exclaimed in as excited a voice as they had ever heard her use "Oh! And you've brought your friends along! That's wonderful guys, really great! Hopefully the other students will begin to take after your example, I mean I really think that they ought to spend more time in here."

None of them had the patience to explain to her that they were only there because their numbers represented members from all of the four Houses at various times, it would only make her stick around even longer.

Indeed, it seemed that Molly was afraid that they might throw their books down if she stuck around for too long, so she insisted quite quickly "Well, I must be going. We Prefects have to patrol the corridors and whatnot between classes. But you lot keep up the good work, and who knows? You might be wearing a Badge like this in a few years." From the way she said this, it was clear she felt that there could be no higher honor – but the disgusted expressions of her audience suggested the exact opposite.

The moment that Molly was out of sight, Andrew expressed the sentiment that each and every one of them had been thinking as he mumbled "If this leads to becoming a Prefect then I think I'd rather fail."

"Hear hear!" chorused the six other males present – along with Julie – before Rose looked at them sternly and said "There's nothing wrong with being a Prefect guys, just because Molly takes it so out of proportion."

The expressions that they were giving Rose were so like the ones which Molly had been eliciting from them just moments before that Rose could not help but shudder. Unfortunately, she was not the only one who had noticed this, as Julie spoke just a moment later.

"Rose…" she mumbled in a tone of great shock and fear, "You're turning into _her_!" she said, looking at her Dormmate as though afraid that she was about to morph into a sort of Molly-clone. Unfortunately, no one was able to find this very funny as Julie was entirely right … what if Rose was indeed headed down that path?

"Julie," Rose said, beginning very sweetly as though talking to a small child "if you _ever_ compare me to Molly again …" by now her voice had risen to one of contained rage, and she was just barely stopping herself from screaming, "Then I will unleash such a wrath upon your head that even your brother wouldn't have the slightest idea what had happened!"

Julie shut up at once, but the rest of them immediately breathed a sigh of relief, clearly the old Rose that they all knew was starting to come back. There was no way that a girl who could come up with lines like that could ever be made a Prefect, so James was fairly confident that he would not have to worry about that possibility. Besides, anyone who would trust Rose with a Prefect's Badge was off their rocker. Rose Weasley was perhaps the smartest witch in all of Hogwarts, but when she threw down she was so terrifying that even James would not dare to stand in her way.

Not that he would ever admit that out loud though.

"Hey James." Said Andrew next to him the moment that their laughter had subsided.

"Yea Andrew." James replied, glancing between the book on the table and the clock at the front of the library.

"We're totally gonna fail this exam, aren't we?" he asked, already having given up on the vain effort which James was mounting.

James did not answer; desperately glancing back and forth as it finally hit him how much time they had wasted. Finally though, someone else answered for him – their voice coming as a resigned admittance of defeat.

"Pretty much." Said Luke, who was still looking at his Star Charts like they were written in Chinese.

* * *

><p>Amazingly enough though, most of the boys did not fail their respective exams – though to no one's surprise their marks were significantly lower than the girls'. Albus pointed out that they needed to bring along some of the other girls in their years, because Rose, Dominique, and Julie made for an entirely unfair advantage for the females in what was becoming a battle of the sexes.<p>

"I'm just saying," Albus complained, as Rose waved her 'O' in his face for the fiftieth time that day, "We need to bring in some normal girls to balance out the averages a bit. If we just counted Luke, Zach, and Scorpius then we'd have done just as well."

James had been quick to point out that Albus' 'E' was a perfectly good grade, and that 'O's were really not all that different anyways, but that had not stopped him and Rose from babbling all the way back to Gryffindor Common Room.

The Third Years had not done quite so well on their exams, as James had been forced to watch Erin and Paul gloating about their 'O's to Nick and Jason who had only scraped 'E's as he and Jeremey tried to figure out what had gone wrong during their Transfiguration exam. The exam was the second big test of the year, and they had both managed to scrape 'A's on the first one.

While Zach had picked up his usual 'O', and Andrew had managed to earn a solid 'A' himself, both James and Jeremey had walked out of the exam with 'P's atop their parchment, grades which they were certain their parents would not be too happy to see as their final marks.

"We've got plenty of time to get our grades up." Jeremey offered hopefully, though they all knew that Professor Wilkins had warned them that the rest of their exams would run very much like this one. The fact that they had scraped 'P's was very disconcerting – especially to James, for whom Transfiguration was usually his best subject.

"I just don't get it." James said, shaking his head as he crumpled up his parchment, "We studied and everything!" he complained, while both Andrew and Zach exchanged significant looks.

"Well, you two didn't study _properly_ James." Zach said very slowly, as though afraid of what kind of reaction his words would bring. He was right to think so, as the response he was expecting came less than a moment later – just as indignant as he had expected.

"OK, and what's _this_ rubbish?" Jeremey demanded.

James was eager to know too, though by the time Zach and Andrew were done explaining he was beginning to wish that the subject had never been broached. It turned out that there was more to studying than just looking over your notes every now and then, and it seemed like this 'proper method' was going to take even more work than he had previously expected.

"Jeez, they just keep sucking you in." James grumbled in exasperation when they finished explaining to him what kind of work real studying entailed. It was like they had tricked him into this without actually telling him how much work it was going to be.

"Tell me about it." Jeremey said, looking equally disgruntled "I say that we protest these horrific conditions!"

Andrew though, was fed up with their whining, and replied quickly and shortly to Jeremey's complaints. "Yes, please do." He spat, "Then you can let us know what your parents think of you flunking out of Hogwarts."

James sent Andrew a mutinous look, and he noticed Jeremey do the same, but after that they stopped complaining about how much work studying was for a while. After all, as much work as it was he did not want to even begin to imagine what his parents would do to him if he failed! Last year he had thought that he had seen the worst of his mother's wrath when she had taken his broomstick from him after his episode towards the end of the school year, and while she had eventually relented the memory of the incident was still fresh in both of their memories.

If she had reacted like that to something as stupid as a fight, James shuddered to think how she would react if he failed a class – let alone if he did something as pathetic as actually flunk out of Hogwarts … he didn't even think that was possible!

Then again, he'd better check up on that one … for Fred's sake.

* * *

><p>Of course, it would have been impossible to suggest that James Potter give up troublemaking, no matter what the consequences might be for his studies. And as much as Fred liked to point out that James didn't do anything fun anymore, that could not be any further from the truth.<p>

Still, when it came to things such as this the truth was so insignificant as to almost be irrelevant. Who cared what the truth was, all that mattered was what everyone thought – and unfortunately a lot of people were starting to believe what Fred had said. And James, who had a reputation to maintain after all, could not have this.

His normal brand of pranking would not be enough; he would have to do something spectacular to get back into the game. It would have to be something that would prove once and for all that he was still the best of the best, even if he was paying a bit more attention to his classes than normal, and James thought he had something perfect in mind!

Merlin, from the way that people acted around here you'd think that getting a passing grade was as easy as just showing up to class!

But there was one essential element to James' plan, and in order for it to succeed he was going to make sure that this crucial ingredient remained a part of the mix. There was only one way that he could silence all questions about his loyalty to troublemaking and mischief, and that would require a large and vocal audience.

Most notably, it would require Fred Weasley. Though Fred was only in his Second Year, it was already well known throughout Hogwarts that he was the authoritative source on who was who in the world of pranksters. If James got Fred to recognize that he was still the king, then others would follow suit.

And so, when James explained his plan to Fred Weasley in the Gryffindor Common Room that night, it was with the knowledge that he was playing with fire. If Fred did not like the plan, did not think that it was good enough, then James' reputation was going to dive even further. It was a remarkable change of pace when James' social standing rested in Fred's hands, and not the other way around, but the stories that had gone around about him had done a number on his status within the school.

He was going to have to take care of that very soon. Fred was a great friend and cousin, but James was the king and that was that!

"Everyone's coming." James said firmly, causing Fred to raise an eyebrow in skepticism. James' plan was certainly not one that could be pulled off with only two students, but if he was understanding James correctly then they were bringing a dangerous number of people along.

"James, are you saying …" Fred began, before James cut him off. "Yes I am." He said with a grimace, "And then we'll see who the pansy bookworms are."

Fred gave James a very long pondering look, but at last he said "Alright, if you lot pull this off then I take back everything I said."

James nodded and turned to go inform the others of what he had just roped them into, but Fred stopped him at the last moment. "Well, except for Rose." He commented with a smirk, "Sorry James but she really is a lost cause."

James shook his head and said "No arguments there Freddy, just make sure that the Common Room is clear when we come down."

* * *

><p>As expected, it had taken some convincing to get Rose to come along with their plan – but in the end she had little other choice but to come along. James had played his ace in the hole, and once he had there was nothing that she could say to get herself out of it – and once Rose was coming there was no way that Dominique would be left behind.<p>

It was – in James' humble opinion – one of the most spectacular plans that he had ever come up with, not including the upcoming prank itself. He knew that in order to make sure that no one would ever question his dedication to pranking again, he would need to clear the names of everyone he was seen studying with, and that included Rose. And the best way to get Rose to tag along was to make her feel as though she had an obligation to protect someone smaller than herself.

And who was this unwilling patsy? Well, James would be accomplishing more than one task on this night. Because in addition to restoring his own reputation, he was going to be performing at least one good deed tonight, by introducing Louis Weasley to the family business.

James' dormmates had – as expected – agreed to take part before they had even known what the plan was; as had Albus. Luke and Darren had been somewhat hesitant, but seeing as Albus was taking part they figured that they had little other choice.

To make sure that the prank was truly as legendary as James wanted it to be, he had gone to his friends in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw as well – convincing each and every one of them in turn to do their part towards what they were certain would be one of the funniest pranks Hogwarts had ever seen!

It had taken a mountainous effort, but they had all agreed. Jason, Erin, Paul, and Nick would join Dominique in the Ravenclaw Common Room, while Christian and Dwayne would wait inside the Entrance Hall to meet up with James before returning to their Common Room, which unfortunately did not have access from the surface.

The most difficult, and most important bit, had been talking Lucy into helping Scorpius with the Slytherin's part of the plan. In order for the prank to work all four Houses needed to be involved, and Scorpius would not be able to carry out his part on his own. Thankfully though, once she was certain that they were not just trying to lure her out into the open, Lucy had agreed to help.

It was a large group to be taking part in such an operation – eighteen students operating towards the same goal was practically asking for someone to catch them out of bed. But of course, James knew this better than anyone … and he had planned for it perfectly.

Because, while there would be eighteen students involved in the operation of this prank, only seven of them would ever need to leave their respective Common Room, three Gryffindors two Hufflepuffs and two Slytherins. Better yet, only the trio of Gryffindors would ever have to set foot outside of the Castle, and that was why he and Albus were taking Louis out solo on this one.

Albus was coming along because James would trust no one else with a prank of this magnitude, and Louis would be there as a part of his initiation into the Weasley clan of pranksters. James would have liked Fred to be there too, but the boy had insisted that he not take part – so as to prove beyond any doubt that James still had his touch.

The complexity of this prank required perfect synchronization of everyone involved. The six students waiting in Gryffindor Tower would need to know exactly when their various duties needed to be performed, along with the smaller groups waiting in their other House Common Rooms, else the entire operation would fall apart! When it came to safeguards and fail-safes, James was not the best of planners. This scheme would work out perfectly as intended … or it would collapse on them entirely.

Still though, when a plan was this incredible you would go through such risks to ensure that it was carried out to a successful conclusion.

"We ready?" James asked as Louis tied his shoes for what was at least the thirteenth time that night.

"Good to go!" Louis replied, looking quite green despite the evident excitement on his face.

"Alright Louis, you pull this off and you're officially one of us!" Albus said with a wide grin, apparently very glad to finally be able to accept Louis into this select group. Of course, the same applied to Lucy as well … but they would have to tell her that later.

* * *

><p>It took some time for Hogwarts to realize that something was amiss the next morning, but when it finally did there was an uproar the likes of which had scarcely been seen before.<p>

Students in each and every House were in a frenzy, racing around the Castle demanding information from anyone whom they could find … but no one seemed to know what had happened, and indeed it seemed that everyone in the Castle had fallen victim to the act.

Each and every student who owned a broomstick had awakened to find that the school's broom shed was empty!

**GASP! The horror of this heinous crime! Yes, this is actually the best that James could come up with - but to a bunch of preteens that is pretty much the worst thing that could possibly happen to them. :P**

**Thanks to all my readers, and don't forget to REVIEW!**

**Remember that the next chapter of the Continuous Legacy Reboot will be up on Monday, and another chapter will go up here next Friday...so stay tuned!**

**Thanks again, love you all. REVIEW! :)  
><strong>


	9. Chapter 9: Great Potential

Chapter Nine: Great Potential

Though many of those involved had questioned whether James' scheme would have quite the level of impact that he had said it would, it quickly became evident that there was nothing they could have done that could have created such a fervor of panic and distress in the Castle! Students everywhere were in a state of panic, each and every one of them dying to know what had become of their precious broomstick!

The worst of the lot were the players on the various House Teams, all of whom knew that they were losing out on valuable practice time before the rapidly approaching Quidditch season, but they were far from the only people worried by what had happened. At least two-thirds of the Castle played Quidditch, and just about each and every one of them had nearly gone into shock at the realization that their broomstick was missing.

Of course, a massive search effort was mounted from each of the four Houses, all of them accusing members of opposite Houses of having stolen their broomsticks. Slytherins, of course, were the preferred targets of most – but the fact that their broomsticks were missing too was a pretty insurmountable obstacle to anyone who wanted to pin it on them, though that did not stop them from trying.

It was in this spirit of chaotic worry that Fred gave James a satisfied grin on the third day since the broomsticks had vanished and said "I gotta hand it to you Jamsie, this was a pretty well thought out number you pulled."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." James said innocently, sipping on his pumpkin juice with a satisfied grin. Over at the Ravenclaw Table, Erin Jason and the others were doing a very convincing job of feigning concern and indignation at the disappearance of their broomsticks – a fact which he was very proud of.

Everyone had fulfilled their part far better than James could have ever have anticipated. With this many people involved he had been certain that someone would have caved and told their friend, but the operation had run so smoothly that not even James would have believed it at first. He had been certain that someone would have let slip what was going on – perhaps to a friend who was particularly worried – but there was not so much as a whisper as to what had happened.

"When do you reckon that they'll figure out where we hid them?" Jeremey asked, struggling to suppress a smirk and look sufficiently downcast. The Great Hall as a whole was very crestfallen by this time, with almost everyone having fallen under the depressing umbrella of the recent turn of events.

For as much as they would love to step up and take credit for their prank they could not, not yet anyway. Once things had died down a bit and everyone had their brooms back then maybe they could reveal what they had done, but at the moment that was too dangerous of a proposition.

"It shouldn't take too long." James replied with a smirk, "Though when they do they're all going to feel like the biggest bunch of idiots in the history of Wizardkind." It seemed that this idea filled James with a sense of glee, as he was humming pleasantly to himself at the very idea of how stupid everyone was going to feel in a very short amount of time.

"And so will we." Zach warned sharply, "Remember, we didn't know any more than they did." Zach had been very worried about the possibility of them getting caught, and what would happen to them if everyone found out. Not about what the teachers would do – they didn't care about that – they were afraid of what the older students would do to them.

Still though, there were rumors flying around that they had been involved in some way, despite their best efforts to make people believe the contrary. A prank of this magnitude would need a large group of experienced pranksters, and it had not escaped anyone's notice that Fred Weasley was now once again singing the praises of his cousins and their friends. It did not take much sense to put it together, Fred Weasley had been the one fatal link in their chain.

Fortunately though, those people who had been able to string what had happened together seemed content to just wait things out. After all, if James Potter and his friends were behind this then there was little doubt that everyone's broomsticks would turn up in a short time in perfect shape. After all, there was no way that someone who loved Quidditch so much could possibly do any lasting harm to a broomstick – that would be sacrilege!

They were right of course, no one's broomsticks were even remotely damaged. In fact, in a strictly literal sense, they were not even missing. For while everyone had been running about the Castle looking for their brooms in a horrified frenzy, their brooms had all been hidden in plain sight the entire time.

The broomsticks were hidden in the last place that anyone would have ever thought to look. Each and every broomstick was carefully tucked away in the student-supply-closet in the Common Room which its owner called home.

It was a brilliantly simple plan, and James himself was amazed that he had even thought of it. Each Common Room contained a small closet which was filled with quills, rolls of parchment, and spare textbooks – but they were never used. It was considered taboo for any student to use any of the supplies that had been stored there, as they were stocked by teachers and therefore – as far as any student was concerned – could not be trusted!

James' one fear had been the brooms that were hidden in Ravenclaw House, which he had been certain would be discovered after barely an hour had passed. Though Nick had assured them that not even _he_ used the supplies stored there, James had been convinced that some low-life snitch in Ravenclaw House would stumble upon them before the first day was out.

But his suspicions had proven to be false, as the brooms were still just as absent as they had been the morning that everyone had awoken to find that the school's brooms were missing. And now, with Quidditch Tryouts just days away, people were beginning to worry that they would not be found in time.

On the fourth morning since James and his friends had hidden the brooms, just when he was beginning to wonder if perhaps it would be best to just have Rose 'stumble upon' the hiding places so that Quidditch Tryouts could proceed as scheduled, there was an excited shrieking in the Great Hall as a Ravenclaw girl came running into the Great Hall – clearly thinking that she was going to be seen as some kind of hero.

"Everyone!" She shouted, "I know where the brooms are hidden!" drawing the attention of every student in the Great Hall to her. It was clear that she had not realized just how much attention was going to be directed her way. The entire Great Hall had fallen dead silent, and everyone was looking at her with ravenous expression on their faces.

The girl paused for a moment, looking over the sea of faces with a petrified expression. At last though, she cleared her throat and said excitedly "The Grey Lady told me," to which every student who knew anything about the Ravenclaw House Ghost let out an audible gasp of surprise. The Grey Lady did not talk to most students at all, let alone revealing any kind of information – no matter what it was. The fact that this girl had gotten her to divulge any kind of knowledge was quite an impressive feat.

James was still thinking to himself that this girl was worth getting to know when Albus poked him on the shoulder and whispered in a strangely croaky voice "That's Kim Brady, she's in my year." and indeed, James did remember hearing her name mentioned somewhere. If he was not mistaken it had been something that Luke had said to Albus, but he was not positive.

Either way, the girl was now beginning to look like she was going to be able to finish her sentence without balking at the number of people staring at her, and announced "They're hidden in the supply closets in the Common Rooms!"

There was immediately a rush as students raced out of the Great Hall to be the first back to the Common Rooms to get their brooms before anyone else could dare to touch them! Everyone was – quite naturally – afraid that their brooms would go missing again if they did not get them immediately, and so the Great Hall was mostly empty in a matter of seconds.

James however did not rush to get out, he was too busy walking across the Great Hall to where the girl was being commended by a large number of – more sensible – older students for her impressive feat.

"Nice find." James said, "Looks like we all owe you one." Of course, James had no intention of repaying any kind of debt with this girl, but it was good to make sure that she knew who he was and that he was impressed with her. He had quite enjoyed the operation that they had recently pulled off, and he was already planning another large multi-House prank for which a girl with this kind of ingenuity would be very helpful.

And of course, there was no question that she would join right in if James Sirius Potter himself asked her to. He was the king of the school, at least as far as he was concerned – when he asked, people acted!

Kim's gaze slid right past him to something behind him before coming back and saying, "Oh, you're Albus' brother right?"

James looked over his shoulder and saw Albus grinning feebly at them, and gaped in shock. Had he just been referred to as 'Albus' older brother'? Albus was _his_ younger brother, not the other way around! He was not to be referred to as some kind of accessory to Albus, as though he were less important than his younger brother!

Albus clearly noticed that James was about to yell, and so he dragged his brother out of the Great Hall saying rather quietly "Good going Kim, I'll see you in Potions."

As the brothers left the Great Hall, Albus shoved James aside and said with a chuckle "You looked like a bull about to charge Jamie, take it easy next time."

"_'Albus' younger brother'_" James muttered to himself, still feeling quite annoyed at the way that this Kim girl had addressed him. She would not be working with the Golden Marauders after that, James would make sure that she lived to see the error of her ways.

In a way it was funny how much power James thought he had over other people, especially in times when they clearly displayed a lack of interest in what he was doing. For it was times like those, as had just happened, when James began to really lose it – and it would not be far off to suggest that Kim was lucky to still have her head attached to her body!

"Oh come off it James!" Albus said with a roll of his eyes, "Do you know how many times I've been called 'James Potter's little brother'? It happens when you talk to people who have known me longer than they've known you so just get over yourself!" It was hard to argue with Albus when he got so agonizingly logical like that, which was probably why James hated it when he got like that. He did not like to be proven wrong, and Albus seemed determined to do exactly that, and do it without any apparent difficulty.

"Alright fine." James groaned as they began making their way towards Gryffindor Tower, knowing that this was an argument that he was destined to lose. He knew why this really bothered him, and so did Albus. He already had to deal constantly with being called 'Harry Potter's son', and so he did not like being referred to by comparison to other people when he didn't have to be – Albus was of course the very same way.

Sometimes, he just wanted to be James Potter – but sometimes it seemed that it was very hard to be just him, and not part of someone else.

"Well, let's hurry up." James said with a half-forced grin, "I won't ever forgive you if my Nimbus 3000 gets scuffed up because I was hanging around talking to you!" and without another word, the two brothers darted for Gryffindor Common Room.

Not that they were nervous or anything, just to be on the safe side.

* * *

><p>The day had come at last, with everyone's brooms returned to them the House Quidditch Team tryouts were able to proceed as scheduled – though there had been a few changes to the way that such matters were taken care of at Hogwarts.<p>

When not a single student had dared return their broomsticks to the school's broom cupboard, Professor McGonagall had finally announced to the school that each and every broomstick would be protected with an anti-theft charm once they were placed back in the broom cupboard, and that the shed would be locked securely with magic that a student could not reverse.

The broom cupboard had filled right back up after that – as it was still safer and easier than just keeping it in your dormitory all the time. Besides, if what Professor McGonagall had said was true then they would not need to worry about any such thefts again in the future.

The first House to hold their Quidditch tryouts was Slytherin, who made but very few changes, as opposed to last season when half of their team was either replaced or changed position over the summer. This year they had made but two new additions, replacing the hated Remington Parker as Seeker, and his best friend Richard Gomez – who was a Chaser.

Much to the boy's shock, Slytherin's new Captain – the thuggish Anthony Peirce – had chosen Nicolette Evermore to fill the vacant Seeker spot left by Parker's departure. The boys had not seen much of Nicolette outside of the classroom, though from what they understood her English had improved somewhat. Much more interesting – and distressing in some ways – as far as James was concerned was Slytherin's new Chaser, Leon Bartlett.

None of the boys had spoken with Leon since their falling out the year before, and Scorpius had told them that he was still as moody as ever. James felt bad for Scorpius, whom he knew had been competing with Leon for that Chaser spot, but felt some sick pleasure in the knowledge that he would soon be able to try and knock that good for nothing snot off of his broom!

It upset James greatly that Leon – with whom he had once been friends – he know regarded as such a hated foe that he would like nothing more than to knock him off of his broom. He had long held out hope that they could reconcile their differences, but it seemed that the chance for such a coming together had long since passed them by.

"I know it sucks." said Zach as he tugged his Quidditch robes on in the changing room. "But it's nothing that we can change. Look on the bright side, I'm gonna absolutely whale on that punk when we play Slytherin!"

The thought did cheer James up somewhat, but not by all that much.

The Gryffindors were the last team to have their tryouts, and had three slots open in their roster. Mitchel Gate, the new Gryffindor Captain, had made it clear that James Jeremey and Zach's spots were already written into the roster next to his, and they would not be in jeopardy of losing them.

"You guys are the future of Gryffindor's Team." He had told them, "So I'd be crazy to let any of you go over one lousy practice – assuming that's what happens." He said, noting the indignant expressions that had crossed each of their faces after this.

"We don't need any favors Mitchie." Jeremey said in a grumble. "We can earn our spots just like everyone else." Zach nodded once at this sentiment, and James chimed in "You can't honestly thing that this was necessary."

Mitchel refused to back down, and just shrugged saying "I'm only covering all my bases here guys. You're probably right, you probably will be fine anyways. But I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page."

James had to admit that he had a point, even if he was loath to admit it. Hufflepuff Captain Scott Nash had not even bothered to hold tryouts, their roster had been set before the year had even started. Everyone who had played on their team the year before was still in Hogwarts, and after the efforts they had put towards improving the year before they were not going to change that now. In fact, Hufflepuff's team was still the exact same one that had won the Quidditch Cup in James' First Year, and if the stories about Christian's improved condition was true then they were well positioned to do it again.

The Hufflepuff's biggest asset though, was still Billy Hewitt – the legendary Seeker who had so completely baffled Jeremey during their First Year at Hogwarts. He was still considered the best Seeker in Hogwarts, especially with Remington Parker gone, though Justin Shindler was also exceptionally good.

James had teased Jeremey about this as they were getting ready to head out. "You know Jer," he said slyly "You know what this means that Parker's gone, right?"

Jeremey, of course, had not the slightest idea what James was talking about, and so he gave his friend a look of confusion and shrugged.

Looking surprised, James exclaimed "Jer? How could you not know? It means that you're the 3rd best Seeker in Hogwarts now!"

In all fairness, this was probably not too outrageous of an assertion. In fact, you could argue that it was in fact entirely true. Jeremey's record against Billy Hewitt was still 1-2, and both Seekers had won the Quidditch Cup for their House – in fact Justin had done it twice!

Still, this was not the kind of thing that you wanted to hear from your best friend, and Jeremey was understandably annoyed by what James had said. But, of course, James was not going to let it die at that. "Although, you may still be dead last for all I know." James muttered, "You really are quite pathetic …"

Jeremey was about to shoot back a fiery retort, and indeed the two may have come to mock blows before long had it not been for a thundering voice from the Pitch. "IF YOU TWO DUNDERHEADS DON'T GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW I SWEAR TO MERLIN I WILL CUT YOU BOTH!"

And so without another word the two boys jammed the rest of their uniforms on and raced out onto the Pitch so fast that they may as well have Apparated.

Gryffindor had the most open slots of any team, as Ravenclaw's tryouts the day before had yielded only one new addition to the team, Melinda Thomas who would be replacing former Captain Andy Malone at Chaser position. Justin Shindler would – at long last it would seem – assume the mantle of the Captaincy in his 7th Year.

There was quite a turnout, including many people that James himself knew from around Gryffindor House. Most notable were Andrew – the last of the Golden Marauders left off the team, as they reminded him often – Albus, Fred, and … wait, who had he just seen.

For the briefest of moments he had believed that he had seen a familiar brown-haired girl standing amongst the crowds, and indeed he noticed that Andrew looked as though he were ready to kill the first person foolish enough to come near him.

Julie Knight was there to tryout for the team!

* * *

><p>Before sending any of the returning players into the air, Mitchel had tinned the prospects considerably by putting them through some basic flying exercises. After dismissing those who clearly could not fly well enough to have a chance at making the team, he set the remaining recruits to work testing out their more fine-tuned abilities in the air.<p>

James was so busy watching Albus, who was squaring off against Elizabeth Robinson and an older girl named Emma Burrows for the final Chaser spot that he did not pay much mind to how Fred, Julie, or Andrew were doing. He was concerned about the others, but Albus was just a little bit more important.

He had to admit, that Albus was looking pretty spectacular. His form was absolutely flawless, his flying superb, and his abilities with a Quaffle were quite impressive. Still, that was nothing more than James had expected. If you wanted to survive in the Weasley Quidditch Pitch back at the Burrow you needed to know what you were doing – their Uncles had not pulled any punches (metaphorically speaking) in their father-son games.

When he did take the time to look back at how the others were doing, he noticed that Fred was looking extremely flustered. It seemed to him that Fred was not at all well suited to be a Beater, as he could not control where he sent the Bludger, and kept sending it off at sharp angles. Andrew on the other hand was hitting the Bludger back to Zach so well that it was like the two were playing catch.

It pained James to admit it – but Fred was probably not going to be on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team this year. In fact, until he came to terms with the fact that he was not going to be a Beater, he was probably never going to make the mark.

Fred wasn't his father, or his namesake – just like James and Albus weren't either – he just hadn't quite accepted it just yet.

James didn't pay much attention to how the Keepers were doing, he did not want bias to come into play when he took his shots. He wanted the best Keeper – even if that was Andrew's stupid little sister.

"It'd be cool if they both made the team, wouldn't it?" Jeremey asked James as the two passed in midair. "Andrew and Julie that is." He added to clarify a moment later, a statement which left James staring after his best friend in disbelief. Jeremey had not been given very much to do, there was no point in sending him after the Snitch and Mitchel did not want to use him to test Keepers as he wasn't sure what kind of shot Jeremey had. As such, he had mainly just flew around and watched people's form.

"Dude, you actually _want_ Julie to make the team?" James asked with a tone that suggested that Jeremey had mentioned that he'd like to see Remington Parker drop by for a visit.

Jeremey just shrugged, a rather impressive feat considering that they were balanced on broomsticks over a hundred feet up in the air and replied "I dunno, Julie's alright I mean …"

But James was not going to let him finish "Dude, she's Andrew's younger sister. He can't stand her, so we can't stand her." That was how it worked of course, didn't Canadians learn anything about how life worked?

"But –" Jeremey began before immediately being silenced by a glare from James. There was no arguing that point, they all had to agree on such matters – back each other up so to speak.

* * *

><p>The next morning, a large group of Gryffindors were crowded around a notice which had been posted in Gryffindor Common Room, announcing at last the roster which would – with any luck – lead Gryffindor one step closer to the Quidditch Cup!<p>

Though he knew that – as much as he had wanted to prove that he still deserved it – his spot on the team had been marked down before tryouts even opened, James was still just as interested in seeing the results as he had been when it had been he himself trying out for a spot one the team. He knew too many people who had tried out not to be invested in the outcome, and he knew that at least one of them were going to walk away disappointed.

As James was making his way towards the bulletin board where the results had been pinned, he heard a loud and jubilated shout coming from the front of the mob, followed moments later by somewhat more subdued whoops of encouragement moments later.

The crowd parted, and Andrew Knight practically fell out of their midst, stumbling as he rushed past James yelling "I MADE THE TEAM!" this news apparently causing too much excitement to allow him time to stop and greet his dormmate. Barely a second later, Zach came rushing out of the crowd after Andrew yelling "Yea well let's see just how much of a shelling you can take!" but he was wearing a wide grin on his face.

It was with a sunken heart then that James approached the board, knowing already that Fred's bid to make the House Team would have to wait for at least one more year. It was nothing more than he had expected after having watched the way that Fred had performed at the position of Beater, but he still could not help but feel terribly for his cousin's situation.

He noticed that Fred was nowhere to be seen, and assumed that he must have left long before – no doubt he was still terribly upset by what had happened.

At last, James managed to battle his way through the crowd to the bulletin board, reading down with some sense of excitement still brewing despite his sympathies for Fred.

_2018-2019_

_Gryffindor House Quidditch Team_

_[Captain: Mitchel Gate]_

_Seeker: Jeremey Hall_

_Beater: Andrew Knight_

_Beater: Zachary Tolentino_

_Keeper: Julie Knight_

_Chaser: Mitchel Gate_

_Chaser: James Potter_

_Chaser: Albus Potter_

James allowed himself a triumphant grin as he read the last name; Albus had made the team – as James had known all along that he would! The brothers had spent so many years playing Quidditch together that they could practically read each others' minds when they were on the Pitch together, and James knew that they were going to tear the competition apart once they got airborne!

James immediately went looking for his younger brother, which admittedly was not that hard. After making his way past the throng of people who were questioning Andrew and Zach about the team's chances, James found his brother attempting to hide from an even larger crowd of Gryffindors – all determined to ask him about whether he thought that he would be able to help Gryffindor to victory.

"Alright you lot better clear off if you want Gryffindor's new players to keep their composure long enough to play so much as a single game." James said, eying the onlookers who surrounded Albus – and Julie as well as he had just recently noticed – with a look of annoyance as the students around him began to grumble and move away. Sure what James had said was probably nonsense, but in case it was not no one wanted to be the guy who ruined Gryffindor's chances.

James smirked and gave Albus a knowing look as he said "I told you that you were a shoo-in to make the team." The fact that James had been nervous just moments before was no longer important, as far as he was concerned there had never been any doubt now that everything was behind them.

Albus however, was not quite so sure, as he gave James a rather reproachful look and said "Fred's real beat up about it you know."

James said nothing, he did not know what to say to make it any better that Fred was left as the odd man out after he had been so desperate to make the Quidditch Team on his first attempt. He knew that Fred must have been absolutely devastated, and he wished that Fred would come and be up front with him about what he was feeling.

"Where is he?" James asked, not meeting Albus' eye as he spoke. He wondered if Fred blamed him – thinking that James could have pulled some strings with the Captain to get him on the team. But no, Fred must have known that James would have done anything he could to help his family get on the team.

"He's off with Luke and Darren." Albus explained, "Neither of them are any good at Quidditch, so I reckon they'll do a right job of helping him get over it." though from his tone it was clear that he was not altogether convinced of his roommates' abilities to accomplish such a feat. There was little in the world that was more important to Fred than Quidditch, and that was not something that was going to change very quickly. Still, it might be for the best if he had some people to talk to about it.

Then again, for all James knew, it could have been a terrible idea too. He was not really the best of people when it came to these kinds of sentimental things, he was never sure if what he was thinking was the right thing to do, or if it would just make everything ten million times worse!

Still, Albus seemed to think that this was a good idea, and Albus usually knew what he was talking about. James supposed that he would have to accept that Albus knew what he was doing and hope for the best. After all, if Albus didn't know what was the right thing to do then he most certainly didn't.

Turning his attention to Julie, James muttered quietly "So, you're on the team too." His tone was neither annoyed nor excited; it was entirely neutral – which was a big step up for him.

Julie seemed to know what James had been thinking about her though, as she turned her nose at him and said "Yes I am James, and I would thank you not to make any snide remarks about it with _Andy_ or Albus and I may just have to make a few … improvements … to your hair."

And without another word, Julie swept from the Gryffindor Common Room, followed closely by Albus who gave James a cheeky wink as he left.

Dear Merlin, what unholy terror had he unleashed in those two?

**Sorry that the Monday update of the James Potter and the Continuous Legacy Reboot was missing, my laptop crashed Monday morning and I didn't get it back until Thursday, which is why this update is coming in so late tonight. I had to work around the clock to get it all done properly, but here it is!**

**Next week I should be right back into the grove of things, thanks to everyone who has been following, love you long time, and please REVIEW! :)**


	10. Chapter 10: Great Expectations

Chapter Ten: Great Expectations

In light of the frenzy that had engulfed Hogwarts during the early weeks of October, the rest of the month grew to be downright dreary by comparison. Quidditch practices had started in earnest, and as much fun as it was to have Albus and Andrew amongst their number James still could not help but join in Andrew's disappointment that they had to deal with Julie as well.

James could not have said for sure what it was about Julie that made her presence so unacceptable, though he would have made up plenty of reasons had he been asked. The fact of the matter was that he was only annoyed by her because his friend – Andrew – was, though to him that was reason enough.

Jeremey and Albus though seemed determined to ruin their attempts to make Julie feel as awkward as possible, an effort which was severely hampered by Mitchel's vehement declaration after their third practice that he would remove from the team any players who did not make their new recruits feel welcome.

Needless to say, James and Andrew were much more subtle in their attempts to annoy Julie after that.

James went out of his way to make every shot he took against Julie as difficult to handle as possible, so that even if she did make the save she would still bobble the Quaffle several times. Sure it made his shot quite a bit less accurate, it was still funny to see her struggle with every shot he took.

Andrew couldn't really help all that much as hitting a Bludger at his sister would have been altogether too obvious considering Beaters were not permitted to attack the Keeper under most circumstances, but he did his best to help in smaller ways – this aid coming in the form of swerving within an inch of his sister whenever he was on her side of the Pitch.

It was after Julie had nearly fallen off her broomstick for the third time that morning that Jeremey finally flew up to Andrew – who was high-fiving James in the flush of victory on the far side of the Pitch – to voice his displeasure.

"You guys are acting like a bunch of downright prats, you know that don't you?" Jeremey demanded, pulling up just a few yards away from the pair of them with a look of annoyance on his face. "You want to drive Julie off just because you can't stand the thought of having your little sister as an equal?"

Jeremey seemed to be genuinely ticked off about something, but James had a feeling that this wasn't just about something that simple. James and Jeremey knew each other well enough by this point to be able to tell when the other one was holding something back – and this was definitely one of those times.

"And _you_, James? Really? I thought that you wanted what was best for Gryffindor? I thought you wanted to win the Cup this year? Tell me, how are we going to do that if the best Keeper in Gryffindor House won't play, eh? Tell me!"

Still James had his doubts, Jeremey most certainly wanted to win the Quidditch Cup just as much as any of them – perhaps more than some – but there was something else going on here. He knew Jeremey was an only child so it wasn't like he was empathizing or something, but there was definitely something else going on.

Before James had enough time to properly explore the subject, however, their meeting was interrupted by someone who most certainly _did_ have a bit of empathy for their latest target. James groaned, knowing that he was in for another stupid lecture, as Albus flew up to them looking even more angry than Jeremey was.

"I swear James, if you pull any of that crap one more time I'm gonna knock you off my broom myself!" Noticing that Andrew was snickering at him, Albus snapped "You too! I'd have less qualms about hurting _you_ than I would James. You're supposed to be her older brother, start acting like it!" Albus said before flying off towards Julie, who was now facing shots from Mitchel Gate.

As Jeremey flew off in disgust after the practice Snitch which he had probably been following for the duration of their conversation, James noticed a flurry of movement across the way and realized that Zach had been listening to everything that they had said. He wasn't bothered by this fact, as Zach knew all about what was going on, but it struck him as odd that Zach hadn't joined them.

Then again, Zach had done his best to stay neutral throughout this affair, so perhaps it was not all that surprising.

"It's a strange day indeed when you and Jeremey disagree about anything." Andrew muttered as they both watched Zach rejoin the developing action across the Pitch. The two Bludgers – left to their own devices until now, were following Albus and Mitchel around the Pitch with remarkable speed whilst Jeremey lazily chased after the practice Snitch. Jeremey had often remarked that the thing was so slow that it didn't even offer him any decent practice. James wasn't sure if this was just Jeremey showing off, but he _had_ heard that his dad had often needed to give the things head-starts to avoid overshooting them, so perhaps there was some validity to that statement.

Still though, you'd have thought that they would have designed some better practice equipment for Seekers considering how important the position was. They were not as important as the Chasers of course, but a pretty close second all things considered.

"We don't agree on everything." James said, a tired remark by this time considering how often Andrew and Zach argued that the two of them should only get a half-vote each whenever they were deciding what to do considering how often they agreed with each other.

Andrew just gave James a skeptical look and said the same sort of thing that he always did when this subject was broached. "James, if it weren't for the fact that you and Albus make me question the existence of clones, I'd say that Jer was your real brother."

"What're clones?" James asked with some interest as Andrew just shook his head and flew away.

"Hey sis, look out! There's a Thestral behind you!" Andrew shouted in a loud panicked voice as Julie nearly fell off of her broom in an attempt to get out of the way of a nonexistent threat.

James laughed at the genius of Andrew's idea, neither Mitchel nor Julie could accuse him of having made it up as neither of them could see Thestrals!

"Oh come off it Andrew, there's nothing there!" Albus shouted in annoyance as Jeremey shot his brother a look of the utmost venom.

Then again, perhaps his plan had not been that well thought out.

"Can it Albus, she was about to fall off her broom – the little baby." Andrew said with a look of the utmost delight on his face. It was clear that he thought that his joke had been immensely funny, and that what Albus had done by revealing the truth to his sister had completely ruined the fun that he might have had.

"Andrew, I told you not to …" Mitchel began, trying to get his team back together in time to salvage something from this practice; but it was too late, and no one was even pretending to be listening to him anymore.

"ANDREW CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT!" Julie exclaimed, sounding so scarily like a parent that each and every student on the Pitch – Mitchel included – could not help but jump slightly in shock. Seeing as they were all on broomsticks, more than a few people nearly lost their grip as a result.

"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" Julie concluded, flying directly at her older brother with a look of murder on her face.

"I'd bolt mate." James said to Andrew, with whom he had caught up by now. Andrew did not respond however, but simply paled until his face was absolutely white before whipping his broom around and flying as fast as he possibly could in the opposite direction.

"Got what he had coming to him." Albus said with a grim smile on his face, high-fiving Jeremey with what had to be at least a little bit of satisfaction. James, for his part, just looked at Zach – who seemed to be giving James an 'I told you so' look – and muttering "I'm just glad it's not me."

And so he was.

* * *

><p>It took nearly fifteen minutes to finally calm Julie down and persuade her that killing Andrew was not the best course of action available to her, though it took a further twenty to convince Andrew that Julie was not going to kill him the moment that he returned to the Quidditch Pitch.<p>

By this time though, Mitchel had long since returned to the Castle in disgust, declaring that the next practice would be the worst experience of their lives after the disaster that had just occurred. And as much as he was dreading the thought of what they would be put through, James really could not blame him.

If they wanted to win the Quidditch Cup they were going to have to be a well-oiled machine, not a group of kids who tried to kill each other after every practice. And with two sets of siblings playing for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team it was an unlikely prospect at best that murder could be avoided.

When at last the six remaining players were back on the Pitch – leader and calming influence departed from their midst – there was a definite sense of tension between them. What with all of them in their Second and Third Years there was little doubt that the lot of them would be playing Quidditch together on the House Team for quite some time, and if this was the way that things were going to go then they were never going to win anything.

No words were spoken, they all just stood there looking at each other with mixed emotions on their faces before at last Zach stormed off the Pitch. It was clear to James that Zach was not doing well with the insanity and drama that had taken over the team, but this was the first time that Zach had actually done anything to show it.

The rest of them departed over time, Julie being the last one remaining outside as James, Jeremey, and Andrew left together – but in the entire time that they stood there not so much as a single word was spoken.

That night though, James and Andrew found Julie sitting in the back of the Gryffindor Common Room doing her Charms homework and – without having discussing the matter for so much as a minute previously – decided together what they were going to do.

The four of them were like that at times – though James and Jeremey certainly did it the most frequently. From time to time they would just come to the same conclusion and act on it without ever having needed to address the matter out loud. Perhaps it came from having lived together so closely for two – going on three – years, but at times they just seemed to read each others' minds.

"Alright Julie, you're in." Andrew said without any prompt, a greeting to which Julie gave them only a look of annoyance and impatience before returning to her work.

"What do you want Andrew, in case it has escaped your notice I have work to do." Julie replied, though whether she was in fact so dreadfully busy that she could not spare a moment to talk or she just did not want to talk to them James was not sure.

"That's it, you're in now." James said, as though this explained everything. "No more messing with you or trying to knock you off your broom …" he continued before Andrew interrupted him "More than we do to anyone else of course."

"Too right, more than we do to anyone else." James admitted with a grin "But yea, you've earned your spot now." He said, thinking that this would of course make perfect sense to Julie.

It of course, did not, and Julie was now looking at the pair of them as though concerned for their mental well being. Glancing between the two of them in utter confusion, Julie said "Is this some kind of joke?"

James and Andrew exchanged looks, wondering whether they would be better off just dropping this attempted maturity now and continuing their efforts to drive Julie off the team. But the moment passed in an instant and the two returned to their efforts to persuade her that they were done messing with her.

"Look, we're done alright." Andrew said, "You're clearly not going to let us drive you off the team, so why would we just drive a wedge between the team when we need to work together perfectly in order to win the Quidditch Cup?" It was a sensible enough point, and indeed that was their reason for being there, but it was clear Julie had her doubts.

"I'll believe it when you go a full practice without trying to kill me." Julie said as she returned to her work – which given the circumstances was the best that they ever could have asked for.

"Finally come to our senses have we?" asked Albus, who stepped in front of the two as they walked away.

"Merlin's pants! Is there such a thing as a private conversation in this Castle?" Andrew exclaimed in disgust.

"Nope." Remarked Zach, who was staring at them from over the back of the couch in front of the fire, looking quite amused by what was going on before him.

"Nuh uh." Added Fred who was locked in the middle of a game of Wizard's Chess with Rose – who was winning quite handedly.

"Not really." Jeremey contributed, punching James on the shoulder before continuing up to the Boy's Dormitories followed closely by another student with a large stack of books and parchment carried in front of her.

"You're kidding right?" Julie asked with a smirk as she followed Jeremey across the Common Room before making the left turn towards the Girl's Dormitories.

Left staring dumbfounded at the number of eavesdroppers on what they had thought had been a private conversation, James said defensively "Well, we figured that there's no way we're going to win the Quidditch Cup if we're not all on the same page and …" but he never got the chance to finish.

"You were impressed James." Rose commented dryly as she played around with her bishop.

"Come again?" James asked with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"She chased down Andrew and made him wet his pants, which impressed you enough to leave her alone." Rose said as she put down her bishop and knocked over Fred's King. "Though in all honesty I'm surprised you didn't lay off when she dyed your hair."

"THAT WAS HER!" exclaimed James, Zach, and Andrew all at once, their hands flying up to the back of their heads in alarm.

"Oops." Rose said with a small grin, seemingly quite surprised that none of them had figured this out by now.

"_That_ was what she meant." James breathed, remembering Julie's comment the day after tryouts about how she would have to help Albus make a few 'improvements' to his hair if he didn't leave her alone. But the question still remained as to how she had helped Albus pull it off, if anything she was even worse with magic than James' little brother.

The three of them stood there in varying states of shock at the revelation that James was not the only one amongst them with dangerous younger siblings as Rose sent her bishop across the board with a smirk.

"Well, I think I'll head up to bed now, these three probably aren't going to be able to move for another hour or to." She commented, laughing at the frozen expressions on James, Zach, and Andrew as Fred's King tossed its tiny crown at the feet of her bishop. "Fred you lost, so you've gotta clean up." She added, sticking her tongue out at her cousin before fleeing up the stairs to the Girl's Dormitories before he had time to protest.

Fred went about clearing off the board with a noncommittal shrug as he said "You know, if you're still like that in about thirty seconds I reckon people might start to mistake you for statues."

At last, James was able to overcome his shock long enough to say "I swear Fredy, if you knew about this and didn't tell me about it I am going to have to kill you!" James could not very well have expected Rose to rat out her friend any more than Albus would have his accomplice, but Fred should most certainly have been on his side in this!

"Dude, I didn't even know about the whole hair thing until two weeks ago, I'm clean." Fred said with a roll of his eyes, though James was not entirely sure if he believed him. Of course, that had more to do with Fred being Fred than anything else. If you knew what was good for you, you were somewhat skeptical of anything that came out of Fred Weasley's mouth.

"Between the two of you I seem to have gotten myself caught up in far more sibling rivalries than I can deal with." Zach said, rubbing the back of his neck in annoyance. "Honestly, is it _that_ hard to get along with your siblings? Me and Caroline _never_ fight!"

Zach had been bringing this up more and more lately. It wasn't like James could really blame him. It was one thing to watch your friends fight with their siblings, but it probably got a little hard to swallow when you ended up on the receiving end on some of their fueds.

"We've told you a million times Zach," Andrew began with a rather bored expression, "It's a …" but Zach didn't let him finish.

"Don't give me your bullshit about how it's a 'real sibling' thing or a 'biological sibling' thing! That's just a copout!" Zach complained. "I wouldn't mind it that much, but if Al and Julie keep targeting me along with you two then there are going to be problems." He promised grimly.

"We'll make sure they keep you out of it." James said, knowing full well that they would not be able to do anything of the sort. "Now will you stop harping on it like you're our mother or something?" he asked dismissively, he was not in the mood for one of Zach's self-righteous rants. Zach was his friend, but the guy just thought that everything that he said was gospel or something.

Zach shot James a dirty look, but mumbled "Fine, let's head to bed before you two manage to do something else that gets us mixed up in something worse."

"You say that like it's a bad thing!" James accused jokingly as he and Andrew chased Zach up the stairs.

"It's worse than your Herbology Grade!" Zach retorted, ducking as James swung a bookbag at his head.

* * *

><p>Classes by this time had gotten back into full swing, and one thing above all was becoming readily apparent to James – Muggle Studies was <em>not<em> going to be that easy 'O' that he had thought that it was going to be. In fact, it was probably not even going to be an easy 'A'! Professor Carpenter had shattered James' visions of cruising to an 'O' on the very first day of classes, spending the entire class talking about how 'electricity' – as it was apparently called – was not even remotely like what James had thought it was.

James had been under the impression that 'electricity' was the Muggle equivalent of magic. They used it to take care of anything that needed to get done, but the fact was that apparently 'electricity' had very limited applications. All it really did was power these little glass spheres that took the place of candles and fireplaces, but didn't provide any warmth whatsoever and had to be replaced all the time, and let Muggles use these strange box-like contraptions that let them talk to other Muggles.

James got that Muggles didn't have access to magic or anything, and that they were pretty stupid to cap it off, but were they really so daft that they thought this was an efficient system? For Merlin's sake, there were _millions_ of owls out there just waiting to carry your mail, and they were wasting their time with these expensive little boxes! According to Professor Carpenter they could cost more than 500 Galleons in Muggle Money and had to be replaced every three years or so because they kept making new ones.

FIVE HUNDRED GALLEONS!

Even more ridiculous though was those big cubes which Muggles drove around with, that were not only the most ridiculously slow contraptions that he had ever heard of, they cost tens of thousands of Galleons, and Muggles had to 'refuel' them multiple times a week for anywhere from three to five Galleons!

It was official, Muggles were even stupider than James gave them credit for – and that was pretty damn stupid!

Needless to say, in addition to not having the slightest idea what was going on in Muggle Studies, James' attitude about Muggle 'technology' was not what Professor Carpenter wanted to hear. When James had voices his confusion at why Muggles did such stupid things he – and the rest of the class – had been given a long lecture about how grateful they should be for the benefits that they had and Muggles didn't, and how they should be sympathetic and not judgmental.

Besides, he insisted, Muggles were getting along just fine without magic.

Never in his life had James wanted so dearly to tell a teacher where they could shove their lecture.

And so he did.

And that was why he was stuck in Detention for the next week.

Mercifully Care of Magical Creatures was going much better, Hagrid was a great teacher and every creature that he had brought to class was more interesting than the last. He had not been willing to tell James much about the Thestrals, insisting that he did not want to ruin what was going to be a very good lesson down the road, but he was still willing to explain a thing or two to James – most importantly that he was neither insane nor weak.

"Takes a real special mind to be able to see em' clearly James." He explained when James had voiced his concern about the fact that he could only see them as though through a mist. "You're just a kid still, I reckon that it'll clear up as you get older. Took years before I could see em' right myself."

"Albus can see them perfectly." James muttered darkly over the tea Hagrid had given him. Usually the two brothers liked to visit the gamekeeper together, but James had not wanted Albus to be around when he was asking these kinds of questions.

Hagrid just chuckled at this and said "Well, I reckon your little brother's just a tad more mature than you." Laughing again he added "More mature than I was at your age too for that matter." Hagrid seemed to find this immensely funny, though James was not entirely sure why. Most adults tended to view immaturity as a bad thing, and even Hagrid had told him off once or twice for not acting his age.

"What about Zach?" James asked, starting to feel just a little bit better.

Hagrid's grin slipped somewhat as he said "Well, I reckon your friend's been through a lot James. Best not be comparin' yourself to him on something like this."

James gave Hagrid a very odd look as he tried to decipher what the Half-Giant had just said to him. He knew that Hagrid did not always think before he spoke, but it seemed like he had chosen his words very carefully this time. There was definitely something to look into there, but he knew that he had to feign disinterest if he was to have any hope of getting it out of Hagrid later.

And so, doing his very best to hide the curiosity that was bubbling to the surface, James just nodded and said "Alright." though he noticed that Hagrid seemed quite relieved that he had not questioned him further.

There was no doubt in James' mind, he was going to have to dig deeper into this later and find out what Hagrid had meant. Perhaps it was because of what had happened in the Forbidden Forest last June, but James had not been able to shake the feeling that there was something more about Zach that not even he knew. After all, secrets didn't come alone – there were always more to discover.

Of course, he had figured that he was just being paranoid, but what Hagrid had said had only renewed the suspicions that there was something else at work here. The Ministry of Magic had taken a large number of documents and instruments left behind by the Magical History Movement into their investigative offices, and it was likely that there were plenty of files in there about Zach. Who knew what other information about him they could have unearthed?

* * *

><p>James had been in Detention many a time before, it was an occupational hazard of being Hogwarts' most devious troublemaker, but he had almost always had someone else to occupy the hours with. The Professors in charge of running the Detentions very rarely paid much attention to whether or not you were goofing off with your fellow 'inmates' – as they liked to refer to themselves – so long as you were doing what you were supposed to.<p>

But not today, today James was scrubbing suits of armor in the Great Hall all by his lonesome. It wasn't like he could complain, none of his friends had told Professor Carpenter to take his boring lecture and shove it up his arse, he had. And as much as they had laughed rancorously at his remark there was no reason for any of them to have to suffer through this with him.

Besides, even if they had done something, James would not have expected them to accompany him. If you were able to evade capture then it was expected that your less fortunate friends would never rat you out.

It seemed as though the suits of armor themselves were angry with James for his crude remark, as even those suits that were usually rather chatty with passing students were silent as the grave. James would have enjoyed any kind of conversation – even if it was with a hunk of metal – but unless he decided to start talking to himself he was not going to have any conversation tonight.

Of course, there were the portraits that lined the walls, but they were all well over his head, and he very well was not going to strain his neck to talk to a bunch of portraits that probably couldn't even see him from this angle.

He was about two or three statues away from the end of the corridor, at which point he could drop the cleaning supplies off with Professor Lund – whose turn it was to run Detention Duty – retrieve his wand and return to Gryffindor Tower for some much needed rest, but just as he was moving to the penultimate statue he heard a pair of hushed voices coming from around the corner.

Of course, any self-respecting troublemaker like James knew that hushed voices always carried with them the best stories, and so he pressed himself against the wall between two mercifully silent suits of armor to listen in.

"It's happening Minerva." The first voice – which James believed belonged to the Transfiguration teacher Professor Decandio – said before immediately being answered by Professor Wilkins "There is no way they could have moved this quickly, it must be a coincidence."

"It is not a coincidence Kira," came the ever-aging voice of Professor McGonagall, "We knew that they would be mobilizing rapidly, and it would seem that they have a few more tricks up their sleeves than we thought."

"It's impossible!" insisted Professor Wilkins, "The resources that this would have taken is more than five times what the Ministry …"

"It would seem that our sources have been disastrously mislead. They knew that we had infiltrated them, I said from the outset that we were gambling too much on information that we knew was probably fabricated."

"So all the reports …?" Professor Decandio breathed in genuine alarm.

"Completely inaccurate, we have been operating under a number of dangerous misperceptions." Professor McGonagall said.

"Everyone will know by morning." Professor Wilkins said, clearly shaken by whatever they had just found out, though to James' frustration he still knew nothing.

"Yes," Professor McGonagall sighed, "The Prophet has gotten wind of the news, though they know nothing of what it really means thank heavens."

"We should be thankful for that at least." Professor Decandio muttered bitterly, "Can you imagine the scandal at the Ministry if the tabloids had even the faintest idea of what was going on here?"

"And they cannot know!" Professor McGonagall said sternly, sounding once again like the powerful witch that James knew she was. "This kind of information could dangerously undermine public confidence in the Ministry of Magic, and right now we need them to invest their faith in the administration more than ever. If people begin to second guess us then it will bring a lot of support to the other side if they look more secure."

"Surely no one could actually be so foolish?" Professor Wilkins asked.

"Sadly it would seem that they are." Professor Decandio replied, "Many people already wonder whether the Ministry is capable of fulfilling its duty."

"No matter, we must wait to see what the Prophet says, we'll know what the next move is then." Professor McGonagall said firmly, before adding "I'll have to get in touch with Potter and Shacklebolt, it is imperative that we act together on this. Any discrepancies could be catastrophic.

The group by now was directly in front of where James was hiding, if they turned around James would have been squarely in their sight – but thankfully they had more important things to do than look around in the shadows for students. Nodding curtly, the two teachers went off in opposite directions as Professor McGonagall continued onwards before disappearing into the gloom.

* * *

><p>When James returned to the Gryffindor Common Room less than an hour later, his head was exploding with questions. He was sorely tempted to wake his dormmates, who had long since called it a night and gone to sleep, so that he could have someone to talk to about what he had just heard.<p>

Still, if what he had heard from the three teachers was true, they would all know exactly what was going on in the morning. Then again, perhaps they would not, as it was likely to be something very unobtrusive if they thought that people would not think too much of it.

One way or another, James was going to get to the bottom of this!

**Thanks to everyone who has been following, and please don't forget to REVIEW!**

**As I said when I started the Monday & Friday system, now that September has rolled around I will be discontinuing that system. Updates will be as frequent as I can manage them, so follow the Twitter (TheJamesSPotter) for updates on what is going on!**

**Thanks again to everyone!**


	11. Chapter 11: I Read the News Today

Chapter Eleven: I Read the News Today

As it turned out, James was not going to have to wait very long at all to find out what it was that had sent his Professors into a panic, as the headlines of the Daily Prophet the next day were screaming the answer at him and the rest of the world. Of course, had it not been for the conversation he had heard the night before, it would have been nothing more than an interesting occurrence, rather than one of such immense curiosity.

When the Third Years had awoken the next morning, James had immediately explained to them what had transpired the night before, receiving looks of utter amazement from his dormmates. Without wasting a moment to speculate, they had all rushed down to the Great Hall for breakfast – hoping that when their copies of the Daily Prophet came there would be some answers provided.

"You're definitely not making this up James?" Zach demanded as they raced down the many flights of stairs from Gryffindor Tower towards the Great Hall. Students making their way slowly up and down the staircases were jumping out of the way of the four Gryffindors, who were running as though some kind of man-eating creature was just inches behind them.

"Of course I'm not!" James replied indignantly, "Do you really think that I'd just …" James trailed off as all three of his friends gave him rather significant looks and realizing that this did indeed seem like exactly the sort of thing that he would do. Going rather red, James conceded "Alright fine, maybe I would. But I swear that I'm not making it up this time."

The others just shrugged, James had new stories every day after all, and so they were never certain when he was being serious and when he was just screwing with them. Still, it wasn't like they had anything better to do, and James really did seem genuine this time around. And so, ignoring the mutterings of other students that they were out of their minds – not that there was anyone who didn't think this already – they continued their race to the Great Hall.

When at last they arrived, hardly any of them could even think about eating – a rarity in and of itself for this group. Other than Andrew, who insisted that the others were taking this far too seriously, no one was doing much more than staring between their plates and the cloud-filled escape above them, waiting for the owls to arrive.

For his part though, Andrew was doing his very best to make up for his friends' lack of eating, shoving every bit of food that he could find into his mouth. "How do you not weigh a thousand pounds?" James asked, looking at Andrew and shaking his head. It seemed to him that the amount of food that his friend had just consumed probably weighed more than he did.

"You're one to talk." Andrew replied between bites, "And besides I probably weigh less than you!" Andrew did have a fair point there, on any normal day the lot of them would be eating just as much as Andrew was, but now that he was too intently focused on what was coming to eat he was noticing it a lot more than he usually would.

"Ahh shut up." James muttered, staring back up at the sky and wondering why the owls were taking so long to arrive. Surely it had never taken them this long to arrive before, but then that was probably only his imagination. It only seemed like time was going so slowly because of how desperately he wanted to find out what was going on.

Finally they began to come, first a trickle or no more than one or two birds at a time, and then a flooding torrent of hundreds of the things, filling the air above them until the blue sky they had once seen was all but impossible to see through the storm of owls.

A few minutes went by before the owls that delivered the Daily Prophet to students arrived, swooping down amidst and between the personal message owls and dropping their parcels and departing with swift efficiency. In and out in a heartbeat, less than half a minute passed between the time that James got his copy of the Prophet and when Andrew and Zach got theirs. Jeremey – being Canadian – picked up his copy of 'The Montreal Magical' when his owl arrived a few minutes later, but by then everyone had already found what they were looking for.

"It's right here!" James, Andrew, and Zach exclaimed all at once while Jeremey was still snatching his paper out of midair. "Front page and everything!" James added in some surprise as Zach mumbled "Alright, so I guess you weren't making it up this time." Zach seemed somewhat surprised, but James was too engrossed in what he was reading to pay any attention to that.

Glancing between Andrew's copy of the Daily Prophet and his own paper, Jeremey muttered "Front page news here too, guess so." The headline seemed interesting enough, though not necessarily anything sinister enough to create the kind of reaction that James had been talking about, and so one by one they began to read.

_Egyptian Museums Destroyed In Coordinated Strike!_

_Confusion and alarm erupted in Egypt yesterday after the Cairo Museum and the Alexandria Magical Museum were destroyed in what seems to have been a joint strike by Dark Witches and Wizards unknown! The Museums were both home to a wealth of Magical history, and whether or not any artifacts survived the explosions that destroyed the facilities is currently unknown._

_Early reports from security teams interviewed by the Egyptian Ministry suggest that two separate but aligned teams of Dark Magicians infiltrated the museums late last night well after the Museums had closed to public access. The Egyptian Ministry of Magic, in a joint statement with the International Confederation of Wizards, has stated their belief that this group of dark wizards had entered the Room of Ptolemy, though what their intentions were in that chamber they have been unable to identify._

_The team that raided the Alexandria Museum of Magic was seen exiting the Museum with a large bag – though it will be some time before investigating Auror Squads will be able to identify what they contained. Upon leaving the Museums, both groups of Dark Wizards set fire to their respective sites, and the enchanted flames left both buildings in ashes in mere minutes._

_Thankfully, because the infiltration had taken place at such a strange hour, there were no injuries, but the_

_While the magical community mourns the loss of these historic sites, the International Confederation of Wizards has also issued a statement warning the Magical Community to remain on high-alert for future attacks. Since the end of the Second Wizarding War almost two decades ago we have seen the rise and fall of several groups of Dark Magic Practitioners, including the Magical History Movement which was believed to have disbanded last summer._

_The International Confederation of Wizards has expressed the belief that the MHM is not behind this attack, and that a new group of Dark Wizards has come to the forefront to pick up the standard that they dropped several months ago. Regardless as to who is behind this shocking attack, we encourage everyone to be on their guard for any suspicious activity, and report anything they see to their local authorities._

_"Naturally we want to assure everyone that measures are being taken to get to the bottom of this terrible attack." said British Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt in a statement this morning. "We are working in conjunction with the Egyptian Ministry, the International Confederation of Wizards, and the Ministries and Bureaus of other nations around the world to ensure that the threat that this group posed is eradicated with all due speed."_

_Confidence of the Ministry aside, it remains to be seen whether or not the perpetrators behind these attacks will be found anytime soon. Early reports out of Cairo and Alexandria are not promising in terms of having any sort of clues whatsoever, and even Ministry Shacklebolt may be unable to come up with a solution this time._

_However, there is little cause to believe that this group will make any similar attacks in then near future, and so [cont. on page four]_

"Don't even bother." Zach mumbled as James began turning the page, "There's nothing interesting there, just a load of babble about how no one should feel threatened." It was clear from Zach's tone that he was not exactly reassured by these sentiments, but he didn't seem to be particularly bothered either.

James just shrugged him off though, turning the page to read what was left of the article, though he had to agree with Zach that there was nothing of interest there. Just the same old tirade about how everything was fine and how no one should panic, and a look around the Great Hall told him that it was working. It seemed that the vast majority of students in the Great Hall had accepted that there was nothing to worry about, as only a few small pockets of whispering had cropped up.

The staff table though was an entirely different story, each of the Professors were locked in fierce conversation with the person next to them, and Professor McGonagall looked older and more worn out than James had ever seen her. He knew that Professor McGonagall was very old indeed, but he was only now beginning to wonder just how old she was. She had already been ancient when his parents had been in school, so surely she was getting too old for this kind of stress!

"Don't say anything." James muttered, still looking up at the staff table as the others gave him looks of the utmost shock. Ordinarily James would be telling anyone who would listen about something like this, but it had dawned on him that this would only make things worse. "If people know that there's more going on then it'll just cause panic, and that's the last thing they need right now."

Jeremey and Andrew still looked horrified, but Zach nodded and said "James is right, we shouldn't even know about this. And besides, we vowed that we were done meddling in this kind of thing."

Immediately after he said this, the newspaper propped up immediately to his left was dropped down to the table, and the boy who had been sitting behind it tilted his head sideways and asked them "Oh please, you guys are _still_ acting like you're going to do that?"

"Dammit Albus!" James swore as his friends shook their head in annoyance, "How long have you been listening?" he demanded, already knowing that he was not going to like the answer to the question.

"Long enough to know that there's more going on here than the Prophet knows about. So what's the deal James, it isn't _them_ is it?" Albus asked, clearly not one to accept the fact that James was not planning on telling him.

James sighed, knowing that he had to tell Albus now and hissed "We don't know, but Professor McGonagall was acting like something _really_ bad had happened when I saw her last night, so there's definitely something going on here."

"Well naturally," Albus said, folding the paper and tossing it aside, "The Egyptian Museums are filled with all kinds of instruments of the Old Magic, those guys weren't just there for the fireworks, they were after something – and from the sounds of things they've gotten it."

"Well there's nothing we can do about it." James said very firmly as Jeremey was starting to get up and looked like he was about to say something very overly dramatic. "This isn't our business, we are _not_ getting roped into this again!" Jeremey looked absolutely furious as he sat down, crossing his arms and muttering "Pansy."

"For Merlin's sake Jer!" Andrew shouted in exasperation, "We're lucky that we haven't gotten killed, is that really what you want to go charging headlong into!" Jeremey did not respond, but just sat there and brooded in silence. Albus said nothing, but from the look on his face James could tell that he was not sure what to think of this.

"Let's just agree to keep this quiet." Zach said a moment later, "Al I know that you and Fred are close but I wouldn't tell him … or any of your other dormmates for that matter. Rose is right out, and Scorpius definitely shouldn't know either."

"In short, you're telling me not to be an idiot and go and blab." Albus said with disinterest before pointing out "I think you're preaching to the wrong Potter." Everyone laughed at this – even James, who knew that he had a tendency to run his mouth at times.

"I'm just saying, this is probably something that everyone's going to be talking about for a while." Zach said, trying to defend his comment. "I mean, this is a lot more important and interesting than …" but Zach would not be able to finish that sentence because at that very moment he was practically thrown out of his seat by Fred Weasley, who squeezed his way into the seat and exclaimed "Merlin, have you guys heard yet!"

The rest of them all exchanged uneasy looks, wondering whether Fred was going to start demanding information from them. After all, keeping quiet about this was one thing, but outright lying to Fred every time he tried to bring it up – which was likely to be fairly often considering how excited he looked right now.

"Uhh … what, what are you talking about Fredy?" Albus asked nervously, no doubt questioning his previous agreement to keep this quiet from Fred. The two cousins were very close after all, and seeing as they were dormmates Fred would have plenty of opportunities to question him endlessly.

Looking shocked at the idea that they didn't know what he was talking about, Fred exclaimed "What? But everyone in the school is talking about it!" he exclaimed, wild-eyed and practically screaming by now.

"Brad Mendola is dating that idiot Melinda Thomas from Ravenclaw!" he exclaimed, before rushing off further down the Table to discuss the news with more appropriately excited individuals.

"Did that really just happen?" Jeremey asked, clearing in a state of shock that anyone could possibly think that this was more exciting or interesting than the news about the break-ins.

"Unfortunately I think it did." Albus said, looking equally confused. "You reckon Fred might just be goofing off?" he asked, "Acting all excited about this even though there's much more important stuff going on to try and take some of the tension out of things?

* * *

><p>Much to their amazement, the news that Bradford Mendola and Melinda Thomas were dating had engrossed the school so completely that the break-ins in Egypt had been completely forgotten. No one cared about a group of Dark Wizards who had stolen some old piece of jewelry or something from a Mummy's Tomb when there was hot gossip in the hallways.<p>

Bradford Mendola, a Gryffindor in his 5th Year at Hogwarts, was without a doubt one of the coolest and most popular kids in the entire Castle – which was the reason that it was such big news that he was now being 'taken off the market' as it were. Amongst the older students, girls were furious that they had missed their chance, while boys were shaking their head at why Brad had set his standards so low.

It wasn't just that Melinda Thomas was a rather freaky looking girl – though that was bad enough – she was also the most dry and boring person that James had ever seen. She never spoke to anyone, and was constantly walking around with her Ancient Runes book, which seemed to be the only thing she found any interest in.

The only interesting thing that Melinda Thomas had ever done was tryout for the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team, and though she had picked up the third Chaser slot there were already talks in Ravenclaw about getting rid of her. Her play had deteriorated greatly since tryouts, and she never so much as spoke to any of her teammates.

And so it was little wonder that no one could understand why Bradford Mendola, the cool and aloof stud of Gryffindor House, would find any interest in this strange girl. Still though, what with everything that had been going on lately James would never have expected something as trivial as this to take precedence over such important and potentially dangerous news!

"I can't even believe that people are this stupid." James said, slamming his head into a pillar in frustration as they watched a group of Hufflepuffs go by, all talking loudly about why they thought Brad had gone after Melinda. "Is there really nothing more important for them to talk about? Like, oh I dunno, maybe the fact that …"

"James." Andrew cut him off lazily, "It's for the best that they're focusing on something else, so please stop whining like a baby and focus!"

"I know I know!" James replied impatiently, grabbing his head in both hands and muttering "It's just so hard to not want to kill these people! I mean really, they're making _me_ look like some kind of genius, and that is seriously saying something!"

Andrew opened his mouth to speak, but Jeremey stepped in front of him and said "James, if you screw up tomorrow then you're never going to be able to forget it! You're _not_ going to get a second chance at this, so we've got to get it done NOW!"

The two best friends locked eyes and stood there in silence for a moment, then they both nodded and James said "Alright, let's head back to the Common Room, may as well make sure that everyone else is on the same page for tomorrow."

The four boys all grinned and high-fived as they began to head back to the Gryffindor Common Room. "It's in the bag this time!" Zach said, a statement which was met with nods from the other three as the staircase beneath them shuddered and swayed.

The next day would be the first Quidditch Match of the season, pitting Gryffindor against the defending Cup Champions: Ravenclaw! Every team was looking exceptionally strong this season, and the Gryffindors knew that they were not going to be getting any easy victories this year. If they wanted to have a chance down the stretch then they were going to have to put up a good effort against Ravenclaw tomorrow.

"Good luck tomorrow guys!" a voice shouted from above as the four Gryffindors turned at the top of the staircase. Looking to their left, James saw Jason Malloy standing with the rest of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team amidst a crowd of other Ravenclaws on a landing above their heads. "You're going to need it if you think you've got a chance of beating us!" Justin Shindler commented with a laugh, and he and Jason high-fived as the Ravenclaws walked off.

As much as Jason's comment had been a friendly one, James now wanted to beat the Ravenclaws more than ever. His pride had been pricked, and that was an unacceptable state of affairs! Who the heck did the Ravenclaws think they were to be so confident going up against Gryffindor?

Of course, Ravenclaw was the defending Champions, and had defeated Gryffindor in their last matchup, but that was irrelevant as far as James was concerned. He was furious right now, and he could tell that Jeremey at least felt the same way.

"James …" Andrew said in warning, knowing that James was very close to snapping.

"Guys," James said softly, "Let's kick their butts tomorrow!"

Relieved that he had not done anything worse, the others just nodded silently and followed after him as he stormed up the stairs, almost wishing that he would run across someone from Ravenclaw so that he could tell them just how badly they were going to lose the next day.

Fortunately though, they reached the Common Room without incident. Albus was sitting in the Common Room talking to Darren and Luke looking quite sick. Fred was nowhere to be seen, and James had a feeling that his cousin had angrily turned in early this night. Julie was sitting not too far away from Albus, and she too was looking as though she might not make it till tomorrow.

Jeremey – who apparently didn't notice this, or else didn't care – walked right up to the pair of them and stood there expectantly for a moment. He just stared at them in silence as the two noticed his presence and stared back up at him. At last, with the sense of over-drama that he always did, Jeremey said quietly "We brought you onto the team to win games, so you'd better be ready out there tomorrow." and without so much as another word he went up the stairs to the dorms, leaving Albus and Julie looking even more pale than before.

James wanted to say something to reassure them that everything would be fine, but he couldn't muster up that confidence himself, and so he just hid his face from the crowd with the hood of his robes and strode up the stairs to bed himself – not wanting to look at anyone.

The door slammed shut behind him, Jeremey was already halfway out of his clothes next to his bed looking determinedly away from the door. The two of them stood there in silence, neither of them speaking until the door flew open behind James just a moment later "You shouldn't have said that Jer!" Andrew snapped as he and Zach strode into the dorm. "You really think that's gonna help matters, making our two youngest players freak out even more before the game!"

Jeremey did not answer or acknowledge them, he just continued to stand absolutely still and absolutely silent. "We need this win dammit!" Andrew said, yanking off his robes angrily and throwing them onto his trunk. "And you're not helping matters!"

A long silence passed and at last Jeremey spoke "They'll be ready tomorrow." he said, his voice barely audible as he remained as still as ever. The others just looked at him, unable to make any sense of what he had just said. They could not see his face, as only his bare back was facing them, and so it was impossible to see what it was that he was thinking.

"Come again?" Zach asked, clearly siding with Andrew on this one, looking at Jeremey expectantly. James wasn't sure who he agreed with, but he agreed that Jeremey was not making very much sense right now.

"Our First Year, the night before our first Match," Jeremey began, turning at last to face the others. "Do you remember it James? We were so busy freaking out over your broomstick that you didn't have time to think about it, but I did. I didn't think I was going to be good enough, I looked just like your brother out there."

James still didn't see where this was going, but he remained silent as Jeremey continued "And then Teddy came up to me, he just looked at me for a while and said 'You'd better have one hell of a game out there.' and walked away." Jeremey shrugged and said "It didn't make me feel any better at the time – made me feel worse actually. But the next day, when we got out onto the Pitch, I just thought about what he said. And I was so determined to prove him wrong for doubting me that I just forgot about everything else."

The others looked at him blankly for a moment before Zach grumbled "Well next time you might want to share your crazy plans with us. Andy was thinking about just jinxing you for the hell of it." Jeremey didn't answer, but just shrugged and went back to getting changed.

There was not much said after that, the reality of the match was fast approaching them, and they all turned inwards on themselves – wondering if they were going to have enough in them to pull out the win the next day.

* * *

><p>"Gryffindors let's hear it for you 2018-2019 House Quidditch Team!" came the magically magnified voice of Bradford Mendola as the Gryffindor players hopped onto their broomsticks and flew into the air. Albus – who had been a 'good boy' and waited until his Second Year like their mother wanted – had been given a brand new Nova III by their parents to fly in the match. The Nova had slightly better acceleration and handling than the Nimbus 3000 that James was flying, but the Nimbus models had slightly higher top speeds.<p>

The Gryffindors kicked off and soared out of the underbelly of the Pitch and into the air amidst the introductions from Mendola "Number 7: James Potter! Number 16: Andrew Knight! Number 71: Jeremey Hall! Number 77: Albus Potter! Number 88: Julie Knight! Number 96: Zachary Tolentino! AND YOUR CAPTAIN, NUMBER 5: MITCHEL GATE!"

James was the first of the Gryffindors to zoom onto the Pitch, and as his teammates joined him he heard loud cheering coming from all around him as the Gryffindors were being joined by about half of Hufflepuff House. The Ravenclaws and Slytherins however were joining in the other half of Hufflepuff in rooting against them.

Next the Ravenclaws were introduced, having the privilege of going last thanks to their status as defending Champions. "And now, Ravenclaws please welcome the defending Champs! The 2018-2019 Ravenclaw Team!" Brad announced as blue streaks came zooming out of the tunnel "Number 13: Paul O'Reilly! Number 15: Nick Aten! Number 24: Jordan Rayes! Number 37: Jason Malloy! Number 41: Aiden Walker! Number 52: Melinda Thomas! AND YOUR CAPTAIN, NUMBER 44: JUSTIN SHINDLER!"

James looked to his left and noticed Jeremey tense noticeably as Justin Shindler flew onto the Pitch. Jeremey always made a point of personally disliking his opposite number, though with Remington Parker it had never been a problem. Jeremey and Justin had traded blows in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw's two meetings since James had joined the team, with Jeremey winning the game in their First Year and Justin striking back in the Second.

Coach Dunn walked out to the center of the Pitch, which was growing steadily louder in anticipation of the game to come. The two Bludgers zoomed out, one nearly grazing James as it went, and less than a second later the Snitch followed it out. Everyone leaned forward on their brooms, waiting for the moment that the game would start at last.

Coach Dunn released the Quaffle and the volume of the Quidditch Pitch soared once again as Bradford Mendola shouted "Let the game begin!"

Almost immediately Gryffindor seized the Quaffle, Albus soaring straight between the two Ravenclaw Chasers who had taken off after the red ball and snatching it out from between their outstretched fingertips. "It's Albus Potter with the Quaffle for Gyrffindor, Potter streaking down the middle of the Pitch with Gate flanking."

Albus tossed the Quaffle over his shoulder without bothering to look, he already knew that James was there, and indeed he was. "Potter with a no-look pass back to Potter!" Brad screamed, as the whole Pitch let out an audible gasp at the gusty and risky move that Albus had just pulled, but James wasn't waiting for the play-by-play to catch up to him. He threw the Quaffle across the Pitch to Mitchel who barely cradled it for a second before letting it fly himelf …"

"GATE SCORES! Mitchel Gate starts it out for Gryffindor in his first game as Captain."

James pumped his fist as he and Albus soared back into defensive position, ducking out of the way as Andrew soared in front of him to pelt a Bludger towards the Ravenclaw Offense. "Nice one Andy!" James shouted as he flew after the Quaffle.

"And now Nicholas Aten has a chance for Ravenclaw!" Brad announced as the Ravenclaw Chaser managed to get free of Mitchel. "Nicholas Aten has the angle he shoots ... AND A SPECTACULAR SAVE BY JULIE KNIGHT!"

Julie managed to get in the way of the Quaffle at the last second, wasting no time before throwing it to Albus, who was already streaking back down to the other end. James spun his Nimbus 3000 around and shot off in the same direction, urging every ounce of speed he could out of the broom.

"Albus Potter has a chance with some room …" Brad began just as Albus lobbed the Quaffle sideways to James, who had just managed to catch up. No one knew he was there, Brad was unable to voice a commentary in surprise as James hurled the Quaffle through the goal hoop.

"A remarkable give and go by the Potter brothers, I don't know how Albus knew James was there!" Bradford exclaimed as the Gryffindors began cheering.

"Dynasty bro!" James shouted as he and his brother flew back towards their own end of the Pitch after the advancing Ravenclaw Offense.

"Julie Knight makes the save, then another! That's two saves in a row for Julie Knight!" Brad shouted in disbelief as Julie continued turning them away. James got the Quaffle from her and without pausing to look threw the Quaffle in an upwards arc with all his might.

"And James Potter looks like he's just trying to get that ball out of danger territory after two great saves by Julie Knight." Brad said, as the Gryffindors booed James for seemingly turning the Quaffle over to get himself and his goalie a breather, but James just smirked.

As the Quaffle began to dip back down, it was snatched out of the air by Albus, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and now had a free lane straight to the hoops.

"Wait a second! Albus Potter just came in outta nowhere to catch the Quaffle, these boys are clicking like clockwork out there!" James didn't bother flying past the center of the Pitch. Even if Albus didn't score he was not going to be able to join the play in time to help the offense. "Potter with a shot, SCORES!" Mendola screamed as the Gryffindor section of the stands went wild. "Thirty – nil Gryffindor!"

James raised his arm in the air, but just then a Bludger caught him in the chest and nearly knocked him clean off his broom. Grabbing his side in pain, James groaned in frustration with himself. How had he let his guard down so easily. "Crap! Look out James!" Andrew shouted, soaring in behind him and swinging fiercely at the Bludger.

James ducked and the metal ball zoomed straight over him towards a Ravenclaw Chaser, who doubled over after the Bludger connected with his back. "I'm alright!" James shouted, "Just watch those things!" He needed to be more careful, he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings.

"And Walker is loose and he will … SCORE!" came the voice of Bradford Mendola moments later, as James was still trying to regain his composure. He hadn't been hit full-force by a Bludger like that in quite some time, and he was pretty sure that he was going to need some time in the Hospital Wing after this. Still, Gryffindor needed him to win this Match!

Albus hurled him the Quaffle, but as he made his way towards the hoops he knew that he wasn't going fast enough. He just couldn't get enough speed out of his broom. As Melinda Thomas came racing towards him he tried to pass the Quaffle across to Mitchel Gate but Nick Aten picked the pass off and began racing the other way.

"Potter's pass is intercepted by Aten and he will carry it the other way. Aten throws it to Walker. Walker back to Aten, he scores!"

James swore and clutched his side again in pain. It was 30-20 now, and in a game like this the momentum was going to be hard to win back. They had spent the first half hour struggling to pot those three goals and win the momentum, but now Ravenclaw had potted two goals in less than a minute!

James needed this Match to end soon, his side was killing him, and he was only going to hurt the team if this kept up. If ever James needed a quick capture this was it, though he knew that his luck was not that good.

* * *

><p>"A sensational individual effort by Albus Potter! And Gryffindor knots it up at 80!" came the commentary from Brad, but James could barely hear it at this point. All of his effort was directed towards staying out there and ignoring the pain coming from his chest.<p>

Melinda Thomas had taken a Bludger full on in the face about ten minutes before and had been taken to the Hospital Wing on a stretcher, but James still refused to leave the Pitch.

The Quaffle came soaring over his head, and James reached up and snatched it out of the air. He ducked underneath a Bludger which was pelted his way by Jason Malloy and spun around Nick Aten to get towards the goal hoops. With what little strength he had left, James hurled the Quaffle towards the goal hoops and spun out of his flight pattern in agony.

"AHHHHH!" he screamed, all of the pain and tension coming out in that scream. The muscle that he had put into the throw had aggravated the pain in his chest, and he was using only his left hand to keep himself from falling off his broomstick.

"And James Potter still has something left in the tanks, Gryffindor leads 90-80, but Potter is in some serious pain out there." The eyes of the entire crowd were upon him as he tried to shoulder his way back onto his broomstick, but he couldn't get up. He remained slouched down on his Nimbus, soaring slowly across the Pitch back towards his end of the Pitch. He needed to stay out there. Gryffindor needed him.

"James just land!" Mitchel screamed at him as he whipped past, "It's not worth you killing yourself! You could have broken a rib or something!" James shook his head, refusing to budge as Julie made another sparkling save.

All of a sudden James heard that unmistakable sound of the air being sucked out of the Pitch, and looked around desperately for the two Seekers. Someone, surely, must have spotted the Snitch. Suddenly he looked to his left and saw Jeremey and Justin both zooming straight towards him.

James couldn't move, he was frozen in pain and surprise as the two zoomed towards him, and that was when it happened.

Suddenly he saw the Snitch pass an inch in front of his face just moments before the two Seekers were about to reach him. Justin Shindler swerved slightly to the right to avoid colliding with James, but Jeremey did not deviate from his course in the slightest.

Just as the two were about to collide, Jeremey flung himself headlong off of his broom, soaring over James' head and snatching the Snitch out of the air just as his broomstick caught up with him.

"JEREMEY HALL HAS THE SNITCH!" Brad screamed as the Gryffindor supporters erupted in cheers. "Jeremey Hall has caught the Snitch, and Gryffindor has won 240-80!"

The Gryffindor players were streaking towards the pair of them, who had ended up less than ten feet away from each other, but the both of them recoiled at the same time and shouted "Don't touch me!"

Their teammates all pulled up as the two of them groaned in pain, James still holding his side and Jeremey unable to quite identify what it was that was bothering him. Then James finally realized it. When Jeremey had leapt over James to catch the Snitch, he had gone pretty far before finally landing back on his broomstick. And the force of the impact had caught him right in the fork of the legs.

One by one the Gryffindors realized why Jeremey was groaning in pain and looks of horror flashed across their face – with the one exception being Julie, who just giggled when she realized. The male members of the team though all subconsciously adjusted their seating on their brooms, not even wanting to think about how much that must have hurt.

As the teams landed, James and Jeremey – much to the latter's indignation – were put on stretchers and rushed to the Hospital Wing. James raised his hand to acknowledge the crowd as Bradford Mendola gave his parting comment of "Let's give a tremendous hand to James Potter, any lesser man would have left the game an hour ago with that kind of injury. As for Jeremey well … tough luck mate, at least you got the Snitch. Just hope you weren't planning on having any …" but before he could finish he was interrupted by an indignant Professor Decandio.

"That will be enough Mr. Mendola!" she said, amidst laughter from around the Pitch as she took the older Gryffindor and dragged him off to be scolded elsewhere.

James just laughed and said "Hey Jer! We won, we beat Ravenclaw!" He could barely believe it, they had handed the defending Champions – a team which had won four of their last five matchups – a decisive defeat in the first game of the season!

"I know," Jeremey groaned, "I was there."

* * *

><p>"You need to stop talking Mr. Potter!" shouted Madam Palumbo as the two boys were placed on separate beds in the Hospital Wing. "I'd recommend putting these two as far away from each other as possible." Madam Palumbo advised those carrying the two of them – older students by the look of them – and so he and Jer ended up on opposite sides of the Hospital Wing.<p>

"Hey what'd you do that for?" James demanded, thinking that at the very least he and Jer could be able to discuss the Match while they were cooped up in here.

"No talking for you Mr. Potter!" Madam Palumbo said, shushing him immediately. "You've got at least one busted rib, maybe two or three, and if you keep talking you could tear a hole in the muscle, or even a lung!"

James rolled his eyes and fell silent but gave Madam Palumbo a look that clearly expressed his anger. "Well it's a start." she muttered before turning to Jeremey and saying "Once you're able to stand without feeling nauseous you're free to go, though I want you back here after dinner so I can make sure that you haven't torn anything."

Jeremey just groaned in response, but apparently this was good enough for Madam Palumbo as she turned back to James and said "Alright Mr. Potter, let's get to work on your ribs shall we? Please try to hold still, the last thing we want is one of your ribs fusing in the wrong place."

James just nodded and closed his eyes as Madam Palumbo shouted "Corpus corporis vigoratus!"

**Yes ladies and gentlemen I am back! Sorry for the long absence, it's been a wild transition getting into the swing of things at college, but I promise that updates will be much more forthcoming.**

**As always thank you all for reading, please remember to Review. Also be sure to check out the Rebooted James Potter and the Continuous Legacy, and follow us on Twitter at 'TheJamesSPotter'**

**Thanks again to all of you for reading, you're all amazing and please don't forget to review! :)**


	12. Chapter 12: Frosty Sentiments

Chapter Twelve: Frosty Sentiments

Winter had returned to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and along with it the sense of invincibility that had come to be expected of the Third Year Gryffindors. Gryffindor's victory in their last Quidditch Game, especially coupled with James' recent praise for his heroic exploits in the last game had bolstered the already stratospheric confidence levels of the quartet.

Hogwarts was indeed a flurry of activity, as Hufflepuff managed to unseat Slytherin in their Match in the first week of December, meaning that both of last years' Finalists had lost their season openers. Of course, anything which involved bad things happening to Slytherins would always be met with a great deal of glee by the Gryffindors, but given the circumstances it only made the moment all the sweeter.

James was sitting quietly beneath the tree on the shore of the Black Lake which had long since been established as the communal hangout for the Third Years of the various Houses, staring across the crystalline surface in utter silence as he pondered the events of the last few weeks. Sure enough, Madam Pomfrey had healed up his ribs without much difficulty, though she had insisted that he stay the night.

In all fairness, James had actually been rather relieved that she had given him an excuse to rest, even after his bones had been mended he could not remember ever having been so sore in all his life, and he honestly had not minded in the slightest spending a night recuperating in the relative calm of the Hospital Wing.

He imagined that had he returned to the Gryffindor Common Room that night the other Gryffindors would have been all over him with their cheers and enthusiastic hugs, and he didn't think that his newly-reformed chest could have held up to the strain. Jeremey, likewise, hadn't left the Hospital Wing until the next morning, but no one had talked so much about his injury. As much as everyone was asking James about what his injury had been like, there were some things that you just didn't want to know.

The next day though, upon their return to the Gryffindor Common Room, the two friends had found quite the welcoming committee waiting for them, and the hero's welcome had never been sweeter than it was then.

"Oi James," came a voice from next to the boy, causing him to shake his head and blink twice as he came zooming back to the present. It was Jeremey who had spoken, waving his hand in front of James' face and wearing a wide smirk "You still with us mate? Looks like you'd right up gone into a coma or something."

James smirked but did not reply, though the flush of his victory in the last Quidditch Match had distracted him for a time, the question of what was brewing in Egypt was still plaguing him. He knew that it wasn't any of his business, that his father and the Auror Department were the ones who were supposed to worry about these kinds of things, but he just couldn't shake it.

He had never intended to have anything to do with these kinds of things, that was the domain of his father and all of his fantastical stories. And yet, despite it all, James could not shake the sense that he could not escape this even if he wanted to. Like Jeremey had said, what if they were doing this for a reason?

"_You shall pay for this James Potter! We do not forgive, and we do not forget! You will pay for your meddling some day, and I hope that I get to be there when you do!"_

The words of Malcolm Raghnall continued to drift through his mind, muddling his feelings about this entire affair. Would the Magical History Movement really put so much effort into hunting down a bunch of kids? There was no longer any doubt in James' mind that they were the ones responsible for what had happened in Egypt, the reaction of Professor McGonagall had been proof enough of that, but could this have anything to do with that threat?

"You're thinking about it again." Andrew said, breaking away from the small ring where he had been sitting with Albus, Zach, and Scorpius. "Aren't you James?" he demanded, leaning against the tree beneath which James and Jeremey had been sitting and looking at him expectantly.

"Thinking about what?" James asked with a forced laugh, looking to Jeremey for support, but the Canadian boy was not going to help him out of this one. Jeremey wasn't looking at either of them anymore, as he had spun around and turned to face the Black Lake the moment that Andrew had brought up the matter that needed no further identification or explanation – they all knew what he meant.

"James …" Andrew said warningly, giving James a furious glare which very plainly said that he was not going to be able to duck around this one. He had made it painfully obvious after all, and there were few people in the world who knew him better than Andrew.

"Yea well so what if I am?" James asked, glancing at the trio sitting not too far from them. Even if Zach, and maybe even Albus, was just as much a part of this as they were he did not want Scorpius Malfoy to know about these kinds of things. Even if they were technically friends, there were certain things that James just did not trust the Slytherin boy with. There wasn't a particular reason for this lack of trust, but James preferred to keep these little bits of information just between himself and the other 'Golden Marauders'.

"So, it's not right James." Andrew replied, "We said we were done with it, we swore! And now you're just gonna turn your back on that and go chasing after glory again." James tensed, Andrew knew that wasn't what this was about.

"Look I'm not planning on …" James began, but Andrew did not let him finish.

"You could have died!" he said fiercely, "I could have died! Jer could have died! Al could have died! Hell, Zach probably _should_ have died that night if we weren't so bloody lucky! But no James, you're just looking for the next one aren't you?"

"I said I'm not!" James retorted furiously, and at this the others turned and faced them, causing the both of them to immediately fall mute. Jeremey still wasn't looking at them, but Zach's expression made it very clear that he knew exactly what was going on, and James had a feeling Albus had figured it out too.

"I've just got a lot on my mind." James grunted, saying as much as he dared with Scorpius nearby, and turning away with a grunt. What was Andrew on about anyways? Was it his fault that he could not forget everything that had happened so easily when there was every reason to believe that it might happen again? And what would they do if the Magical History Movement _did_ follow through on their promise to exact their revenge? They would have no way to defend themselves against the powerful and dangerous Dark Wizards.

Maybe Andrew was turning a blind eye to everything that had happened to them, but James could not afford to! He would not let himself, because if he did the consequences could be … well, James did not like to think about it.

"Scorp, didn't you say that you have a paper due tomorrow?" Zach asked in a neutral tone, which seemed to shock the Slytherin boy as there was a notable pause before he replied "Uhh… yea, but I'm almost done."

"I disagree." Zach said quite pointedly, "I think that you're nowhere near done and that you should go back and get started now or else you might never finish." It seemed that Scorpius got the hint, as he nodded and grabbed his bag before heading back to the Castle, without so much as a 'goodbye' to any of them.

James didn't care, he knew what Zach had done and why, and he appreciated it. Everything was so convoluted right now that he didn't know where to go with it all, but surely Zach had an answer.

"Egypt?" Albus asked, the word serving as the only clarification necessary for them to understand. James nodded dully, but still did not turn around to face the others. Jeremey, however, must have rejoined the circle as it was he who spoke next. "James reckons that it's _them_ that're behind it. And I agree."

"What an incredible deduction that was Sherlock Holmes." Albus replied tersely, "I'm honestly amazed you were able to figure that out, did you get help from a First Year?" Perhaps this was not the time for sarcasm, but James had to admit that Jer was pretty stupid if he didn't realize that everyone had figured that out by now.

"Who in the name of Merlin's most pointy hat is Sherlock Holmes?" Jeremey asked, a question which was met by mumbles of confusion from everyone else. "It's a Muggle thing, but that's not important right now." Albus interjected over the lot of them, "The point is that you're not surprising anyone with that knowledge Jer, why should we be so worried?"

"Well we all know Canada here still fancies himself some kind of savior." Zach commented dryly, "And it shouldn't surprise anyone that James is hopping right back on the bandwagon. Guess the last Quidditch Match made you two thirsty for recognition again. You honestly think we're gonna be the ones to get to the bottom of this?"

"That's not it!" James and Jeremey replied simultaneously, surprising each other more than anyone else. The others no longer found it even remotely interesting when the two had similar or identical comments to make about something, but the two of them had found it odd ever since it had been pointed out to them.

"Raghnall swore the Magical History Movement would come after us!" James said, "Said that they'd get their revenge on us for ruining their plans. You really think that was a load of hot air?" James didn't know why they couldn't see the danger that this still posed to all of them. Honestly he didn't know why _he_ hadn't seen it over the summer.

"Really James, you're harping on that again?" Albus asked, shaking his head as though he had never heard anything stupider. "You really think that they're gonna waste their resources hunting down a bunch of kids? Maybe you don't pay attention when dad's going over Ministry stuff, but they don't have much at their disposal as it is."

"The Ministry didn't think that they had the stuff for this job either, but they did it! I'm telling you Al, the Ministry is wrong, they've been wrong before even dad says so!" Of course, that was during the corrupt dying days of the old Ministry of Magic that had all put laid out the welcome mat for You Know Who by failing to act in time, but as far as James was concerned the point still applied. Just because someone was in a position of power did not mean they were infallible!

"You're mad if you think that the Magical History Movement really cares about us that badly." Andrew replied, shaking his head and saying "They needed Zach on one specific night last year, and it took them all of six seconds to get him. If they wanted anything to do with us they'd have done it already. Just give it up James, it's over, they've got more important things to deal with than us, and our side's got more efficient ways to deal with them than us!"

"I put up more of a fight than _that_!" Zach protested, but Andrew just groaned and muttered "Not the point mate."

James had to admit that Andrew was right on that count, the 'protection' of Hogwarts had already been breached by the Magical History Movement, and surely they could do so again. Of course, they had only been able to do so because the Quidditch Cup Final had taken place that day, meaning that the students would be outside in the Pitch and thus much more vulnerable and distracted, but it was still very clear how powerful the MHM really was.

"I'm not going looking for trouble!" James protested, "I'm just … just …" But James was unable to come up with a word to describe what it was that he was doing, until Jeremey helpfully stepped in and said "Preparing."

James nodded and said "Yea, preparing. For the worst, if need be."

* * *

><p>In the end, none of them had been able to convince the others that they were wrong, and so the five Gryffindors had returned to the Great Hall for dinner in bitter moods. James still couldn't understand why the others simply wouldn't accept what seemed to him to be so clear. They were still in danger, and if they didn't ready themselves for it they were just offering themselves up as lambs to the slaughter!<p>

Okay, perhaps that was a bit overly dramatic, but the fact still remained that they could not afford to be ignorant when the Magical History Movement could strike at any time!

And yet the weeks rolled by, and still nothing happened. There was no new reports in the papers, and not so much as the slightest sign that anything was wrong at Hogwarts – or indeed anywhere else in the Wizarding World. The stories about the museum break-ins faded like most such tales did, and before too long it was as though nothing had ever happened in the first place. After all, a story was only interesting so long as it was fresh, and this one had lost it's appeal long ago.

Scorpius was rather terse with them in the days after he had been rudely dismissed, but if he was being honest this was of little concern to James. He had never been particularly fond of Scorpius Malfoy, and he was more of Albus' friend than his own. Besides, he was a Slytherin and just being around him made James feel as though he were somehow unclean.

Instead he found himself spending more time in the company of Jason Malloy, who apparently was receiving a lot of criticism from his Housemates over his play in the Gryffindor v. Ravenclaw Quidditch Match. It hadn't been Jason's fault of course, but after seeing what James had been able to do for Gryffindor there was little doubt that Jason had heard a lot of discontent from his Housemates.

Still, despite all of this, Jason repeatedly surprised James by smashing his notion that Ravenclaws had to be bookworms or nerds. Jason – it seemed – did not like class any more than James did, and indeed his grades were certainly not much better than his own. He supposed that there must have been some reason why the Sorting Hat had stuck him in Ravenclaw, but for the life of him James couldn't figure it out.

And, of course, spending more time with Jason meant that James also got to spend plenty of time in Erin's company, which was always a plus in the eyes of the Gryffindor boy. Though neither Jason nor Erin knew it, James was still trying to find out as much as he could about his crush, storing all the information away for some point in the future when he might possibly be able to put it to good use!

Today though, Erin had not joined them, and Jason had brought Paul O'Reilly and Nick Aten along instead, and while the two boys were certainly James' friends too he didn't find their company nearly as interesting as he did Erin's. Not to mention the fact that Nick had been acting even moodier than usual lately.

Either way though, it was still nice to spend time with someone besides his dormmates or Albus, as James was beginning to feel like they were almost beginning to become each other. Just a few days he had noticed Jeremey scolding Andrew for goofing off while he was trying to study.

Needless to say, they had all decided that they needed a bit of a break from one another, which was why James was here right now.

"So what d'you reckon the Professors do over Christmas holidays?" Jason asked, as the four of them had been discussing the upcoming break, which they were all counting down the days towards. James had to admit, he had never imagined his teachers having lives outside of the classroom before. It was just something that you never thought about, like trying to imagine what it would be like if the Giant Squid married Professor McGonagall. Actually, come to think of it that would be pretty hysterical.

"I dunno, I figured they just went and hibernated in the Teacher's Lounge or something." Paul replied with a shrug, brushing his long hair out of his eyes yet again. It seemed that Paul couldn't got more than a few minutes without his hair managing to get in his eyes, even if he had not moved in the slightest for that entire time.

"I thought they slept in coffins under their desks." Nick replied in a flat tone, which reduced the rest of them to snickers even though he seemed relatively unamused himself.

"No, seriously, I mean just think about it for a couple of seconds" Andrew said with a smirk, "Could you possibly imagine Professor Ambrose having a family to go home to? I mean, do you reckon that there's a little Timmy Ambrose somewhere waiting for 'daddy' to come home from the Christmas holidays?"

The idea was rather interesting to think about. James had certainly never imagined his Professors in such a context before. And in the case of ones like Professor Ambrose it was most certainly not something that was very easy to picture. Professor Ambrose was not a friendly man to say the very least, and at least half of Hogwarts was downright terrified by the eerie Divinations Professor.

"If so, then I have never felt more sorry for another human being in all of my life as I have for that unfortunate child." James replied with a smirk, a sentiment which was echoed immediately by Paul O'Reilly. If Professor Ambrose had a kid, that kid would most certainly be severely emotionally disturbed to say the very least.

"Imagine if he inherited Ambrose's Look of Death!" Nick said with a smirk, the first time that he had shown such emotion all day. It would certainly be both frightening and hilarious to imagine, Professor Ambrose's 'Look of Death' was infamous amongst students for striking fear into the hearts of even the most troublesome of students.

"Forget about Ambrose, what about Professor Cooley?" James demanded with a roar of laughter, "The poor kid would be one part man three parts machine!" They all chuckled at this, Professor Cooley was the Astronomy Professor at Hogwarts, a man known for his cold and calculating nature.

"Yea, and he'd probably have the poor kid wrapped up in some monkey suit from the second that he was old enough to walk." Jason said, which elicited more laughter at the idea of a toddler wandering about in one of Professor Cooley's ridiculous tweed suits.

"I wonder if McGonagall's got a family." Nick mused, "It seems to me that she doesn't have anything besides the school at times. Last year when I was leaving her office one of the Portraits asked her why she hadn't retired by now, and she just said 'I can't'."

They all came to a stop at this, no one laughing anymore. Moreso than never having had thought about his Professors as having lives outside of Hogwarts, James had never imagined that they might actually be real people with all the kinds of emotions that they did.

"She's gotta be up there in years, hasn't she?" James asked after a long silence, remembering that his father had said that she had already been an old lady when _he_ had been at Hogwarts, which meant that she had to be positively ancient by now. And while he knew that Witches and Wizards could live for a long time, Professor McGonagall really had to be slowing down.

"Yea I know…" Paul replied a moment later, sounding strangely serious, "I mean like, old old. Old for our kind even."

Though none of them would say it out loud, they were all thinking the same thing around this point. Through their two and a half years at Hogwarts, all of them had caused Professor McGonagall more than their fair share of stress – James especially. Their exploits at the end of their First Year – which all of them had been involved in – had probably very nearly given the old Headmistress a heart attack, and they were no doubt feeling just as guilty as James was right about now.

"Hey James, did your dad ever tell you how old Dumbledore was when he …" Jason was unable to finish his question, which James suspected had something to do with the hushed way he had mentioned the former Headmaster's name. James knew that there were a lot of people for whom Albus Dumbledore was some kind of saint or something to be worshipped or revered, but he had never seen him that way. In his mind, the man would always be the wise mentor that his father had made him out to be in the stories.

Still though, James was not sure, and so he was forced to shrug and reply "If he did then I don't remember. But he couldn't have been much older than McGonagall is now. At least, I don't reckon …" He wasn't completely sure to be honest, but from his father's stories Dumbledore had still been rather lively at the time of his death, so he couldn't have been so old that he was slowing even as McGonagall was now.

The boys remained silent for a moment, thoughts spiraling between them unspoken for whatever reason. At last though, Jason forced a smile and said "Can you imagine if McGonagall heard us talking about how old she was?"

James' upper lip pricked upwards at this, and Paul replied with a grin "She'd probably land the lot of us in Detention for as long as we lived." There was still a hint of hesitation behind his words, but they could already feel the tension lifting. They could not stay silent for long, and even the mild sense of reverence for the long dead was fading fast.

"Detention? We'd be lucky if we got away that easily." James replied with a smirk, now fully enjoying the jokes once more. "She's probably have us drawn and quartered, or else transform us into mice and keep us on her desk as a warning to future troublemakers."

"I still have not ruled that out Mr. Potter." Came a sharp voice from behind them, and the boys spun around in alarm to see Professor McGonagall walking out from behind a pillar. The lot of them tensed instinctively, but Professor McGonagall did not look mad. On the contrary, she looked rather amused – if perhaps a tad bit sad about something – and said "Now, if the lot of you have finished loudly questioning the social lives – or lackthereof of your various Professors, perhaps you could assist an old woman with a rather difficult task."

The four of them sat there, frozen in shock with their mouths hanging various distances from their normal heights. Professor McGonagall seemed to find this even more amusing as she laughed and said "Not to many volunteers at once. Come now, I'll give you each five points in the spirit of Christmas."

Whether it was relief at not being in trouble or the promise of House Points, or something in the middle, all four boys sprang to their feet and followed after Professor McGonagall, who in the end only set them to helping Hagrid decorate the Great Hall. It was only after she left that James thought that there was something odd about Professor McGonagall's behavior.

Professor McGonagall was not an unpleasant woman, but that was certainly more cheerful than James had ever seen her, and he highly doubted that their jokes had been the cause of that. No, there was something else going on here, and James had a feeling that he had a vague idea as to what. Something had happened, something very good indeed, and James would bet his broomstick that it had to do with the Magical History Movement.

Maybe they had captured someone or gotten a lead, but there was something else motivating Professor McGonagall's odd cheerfulness, and James was going to be sure to find out what it was once he got back home the next week. Whatever had happened, his dad would definitely know what it was, and James was going to do everything in his – and Al's – power to find out what it was!

* * *

><p>"What do you mean we're not coming home for Christmas!" James and Albus demanded simultaneously, their voices causing the flame through which their father was talking to them to waver for a moment.<p>

"I didn't say that now if you'll calm down I can tell you." Harry Potter said, trying to get his two sons to stop talking long enough to make himself heard. Ordinarily this would have been an impossible task, but James and Albus shut right up.

"You Nana Molly's got a very mild case of Dragon Pox, now wait!" their father held up a finger, already knowing that the two were going to start blurting out a million questions at once. "She's going to be completely fine, but she's going to need to stay in St. Mungos for at least three weeks, and she's still highly contagious."

The two boys immediately breathed a sigh of relief, Dragon Pox could be a deadly disease, especially among people as old as their grandparents. "Then what are we going to do?" Albus asked, hoping that perhaps the rest of the family could meet up. The two Potter boys missed their younger cousins, not to mention Teddy Lupin, who was always with the Weasley Cousins for Christmas dinner.

Their dad avoided their eyes for a moment before saying "Well, we didn't think that it'd be right to still have the party without your grandparents, so we've decided that everyone's going to have their own little Christmas this year."

James and Albus immediately opened their mouths to protest, but their father cut them off "I'm sorry boys, I know you love the Christmas Party, but your Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron already booked a cruise and your Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur have made plans with her family in France …"

"What's a cruise?" James asked, overriding Albus who had been about to say something much more logical, causing the other two people in the conversation to slap their palms to their foreheads in frustration.

"Glad to see we've got a no judgment circle going here." James commented with a groan, as Albus asked "What are we doing then dad?"

James' father just shrugged and said "Don't worry guys we'll find something fun to do, just the five of us. It'll be some nice family bonding time." a statement which immediately caused both boys to shudder. James was a teenager, and Albus not too far behind, and the thought of such activities was enough to thoroughly disgust the both of them.

"Family bonding?" James asked with a horrified expression, just moments before Albus demanded "You can't be serious?" They knew that this was the wrong route to try with their father, who seemed to think that any family activity was the best way to spend your time, but it was purely instinctual to respond that way.

"Now don't you two be like that." their dad said, scolding them gently before promising "We'll all have a great time, we always do. Maybe you can invite one of your friends again, they had such great fun last time." James and Albus nodded, but neither of them were too convinced.

It was Albus who spoke next though, looking up at their dad thoughtfully and asking "Hey dad, what if one of my friends invited me to spend Christmas with him?" James looked at Albus in confusion, having all but forgotten that – like himself – Albus had friends who were not also friends with his brother.

Their father paused for a moment, turning around for a moment so that they saw nothing but the back of his head, and James knew that he was talking the matter over with their mother. James wondered whether he could get himself invited somewhere, after all he was not going to spend all of Christmas Holiday with naught but Lily for company!

At last, their dad turned back to face them and said "That's fine Albus, but your mother insists that you be home for the second week of your holiday." It was clear from their father's tone that he quite agreed with their mum, but James had a feeling that he was only too happy to paint their mother as the 'bad guy' in this situation. Their dad rarely liked to make unpopular decisions.

Albus nodded, probably having known that this would be a condition all along, and their dad asked "Who are you going to be staying with Al?"

"Luke, he invited me last week but I told him I didn't think I'd be able to, cause of what we normally do. But he said if I changed my mind the offer was still on the table so I'm sure he won't mind." James noticed that Albus was visibly relieved, no doubt having imagined all too vividly the horrors that would have awaited him had he been forced to spend the entire two weeks without anyone to talk to but Lily and himself – and the boys could use a bit of a break from one another just as James had been keeping away from his dormmates a bit lately.

"Yea I remember Luke, nice boy." their father said before turning to James and saying "Well then James, we'll pick you up at King's Cross on …" but James was not going to sit idly by and allow himself to be roped into such a horrible fate! With Albus gone that meant that he would literally be on his own to deal with the endless questions of Lily – and perhaps even worse their parents.

Desperately, and without taking time to think, James declared "Uhh, but dad. Jer asked if I could spend Christmas with him." Almost the moment that he had said it, James regretted it. If there was anyone who his dad would be hesitant to let him spend the holidays with it was Jeremey Hall, who lived on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Their dad remained silent for a long while before saying "Well, alright then. We'll see you in a few weeks boys. I love you both, stay safe, and remember to write."

"Love you too dad." the two boys replied in chorus, and with a loud pop their father's head vanished from the fireplace. Almost the instant that it had, Albus rounded on James with a smirk.

"Jer never invited you for Christmas did he?" Albus asked, to which James smirked and replied "No, but he's going to."

* * *

><p>Jeremey Hall was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, staring oddly at a portrait above the fireplace which seemed vaguely familiar to him for some reason. Just when he thought that he had the name on his tongue though, a loud voice shouted his name from across the Common Room.<p>

"Oi Jer!" James shouted, walking through the portrait hole with Albus and walking over to his best friend "Christmas, your place, sounds good? Awesome."

Jeremey mumbled his agreement with whatever James had said and returned his attention to the portrait he had been staring at. It was only once James had reached the stairs leading to the Boy's Dormitories that Jeremey realized what James had just said to him.

"Wait … What!"

**So sorry about the long wait, yet again, but this time I think I can safely say that we'll be back to a more regular posting schedule. Thank you to everyone for your patience and please remember to review. :)**

**Remember you can follow me on Twitter (TheJamesSPotter) for updates on the series, which will be more regular again as well.**


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